SSH Plugins

SCP File Copier

In addition to the general SSH configuration mentioned for in this section, some additional configuration can be done for SCP.

When a Script is executed on a remote node, it is copied over via SCP first, and then executed. In addition to the SSH connection properties, these node attributes can be configured for SCP:

• file-copy-destination-dir: The directory on the remote node to copy the script file to before executing it. The default value is C:/WINDOWS/TEMP/ on Windows nodes, and /tmp for other nodes.
• osFamily: specify "windows" for windows nodes.

Authentication types

SSH authentication can be done in two ways, via password or public/private key.

By default, public/private key is used, but this can be changed on a node, project, or framework scope.

The mechanism used is determined by the ssh-authentication property. This property can have two different values:

• password
• privateKey (default)

When connecting to a particular Node, this sequence is used to determine the correct authentication mechanism:

1. Node level: ssh-authentication attribute on the Node. Applies only to the target node.
2. Project level: project.ssh-authentication property in project.properties. Applies to any project node by default.
3. Rundeck level: framework.ssh-authentication property in framework.properties. Applies to all projects by default.

If none of those values are set, then the default public/private key authentication is used.

Specifying SSH Username

The username used to connect via SSH is taken from the username Node attribute:

• username="user1"

This value can also include a property reference if you want to dynamically change it, for example to the name of the current Rundeck user, or the username submitted as a Job Option value:

• ${job.username} - uses the username of the user executing the Rundeck execution.
• ${option.someUsername} - uses the value of a job option named "someUsername".

If the username node attribute is not set, then the static value provided via project or framework configuration is used. The username for a node is determined by looking for a value in this order:

1. Node level: username node attribute. Can contain property references to dynamically set it from Option or Execution values.
2. Project level: project.ssh.user property in project.properties file for the project.
3. Rundeck level: framework.ssh.user property in framework.properties file for the Rundeck installation.

SSH private keys

The default authentication mechanism is public/private key.

The built-in SSH connector allows the private key to be specified in several different ways. You can configure it per-node, per-project, or per-Rundeck instance.

When connecting to the remote node, Rundeck will look for a property/attribute specifying the location of the private key file, in this order, with the first match having precedence:

1. Node level: ssh-keypath attribute on the Node. Applies only to the target node.
2. Project level: project.ssh-keypath property in project.properties. Applies to any project node by default.
3. Rundeck level: framework.ssh-keypath property in framework.properties. Applies to all projects by default.

If you private key is encrypted with a passphrase, then you can use a "Secure Option" to prompt the user to enter the passphrase when executing on the Node. See below.

SSH Private Key Passphrase

Using a passphrase for privateKey authentication works in the following way:

• A Job must be defined specifying a Secure Option to prompt the user for the key's passphrase.
• Target nodes must be configured to use privateKey authentication.
• When the user executes the Job, they are prompted for the key's passphrase. The Secure Option value for the passphrase is not stored in the database, and is used only for that execution.

Therefore Private Key Passphrase authentication has several requirements and some limitations:

1. Private Key-authenticated nodes requiring passphrases can only be executed on via a defined Job, not via Ad-hoc commands (yet).
2. Each Job that will execute on such Nodes must define a Secure Option to prompt the user for the key's passphrase before execution.
3. All Nodes using passphrase protected private keys for a Job must have a matching Secure Option defined, or may use the same option name (or the default) if they share the key's passphrase (e.g. using the same private key).

Passphrases are input either via the GUI or arguments to the job if executed via CLI or API.

To enable SSH Private Key authentication, first make sure the ssh-authentication value is set (#authentication-types. Second, configure the path to the private key file (#ssh-private-keys).

Next, configure a Job, and include an Option definition where secureInput is set to true. The name of this option can be anything you want, but the default value of sshKeyPassphrase assumed by the node configuration is easiest.

If the value is not sshKeyPassphrase, then make sure to set the following attribute on each Node for password authentication:

• ssh-key-passphrase-option = "option.NAME" where NAME is the name of the Job's secure option.

An example Node and Job option configuration are below:

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<node name="egon" description="egon" osFamily="unix"
    username="rundeck"
    hostname="egon"
    ssh-keypath="/path/to/privatekey_rsa"
    ssh-authentication="privateKey"
    ssh-password-option="option.sshKeyPassphrase" />

Job:

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<joblist>
    <job>
        <!-- ... -->
        <context>
          <project>project</project>
          <options>
            <option required='true' name='sshKeyPassphrase' secure='true'
              description="Passphrase for SSH Private Key"/>
          </options>
        </context>
        <!-- ... -->
    </job>
</joblist>

SSH Password Authentication

Password authentication works in the following way:

• A Job must be defined specifying a Secure Option to prompt the user for the password
• Target nodes must be configured for password authentication
• When the user executes the Job, they are prompted for the password. The Secure Option value for the password is not stored in the database, and is used only for that execution.

Therefore Password authentication has several requirements and some limitations:

1. Password-authenticated nodes can only be executed on via a defined Job, not via Ad-hoc commands (yet).
2. Each Job that will execute on password-authenticated Nodes must define a Secure Option to prompt the user for the password before execution.
3. All Nodes using password authentication for a Job must have an equivalent Secure Option defined, or may use the same option name (or the default) if they share authentication passwords.

Passwords for the nodes are input either via the GUI or arguments to the job if executed via CLI or API.

To enable SSH Password authentication, first make sure the ssh-authentication value is set as described in Authentication types.

Next, configure a Job, and include an Option definition where secureInput is set to true. The name of this option can be anything you want, but the default value of sshPassword assumed by the node configuration is easiest.

If the value is not sshPassword, then make sure to set the following attribute on each Node for password authentication:

• ssh-password-option = "option.NAME" where NAME is the name of the Job's secure option.

An example Node and Job option configuration are below:

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<node name="egon" description="egon" osFamily="unix"
    username="rundeck"
    hostname="egon"
    ssh-authentication="password"
    ssh-password-option="option.sshPassword1" />

Job:

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<joblist>
    <job>
        <!-- ... -->
        <context>
          <project>project</project>
          <options>
            <option required='true' name='sshPassword1' secure='true' />
          </options>
        </context>
        <!-- ... -->
    </job>
</joblist>

Secondary Sudo Password Authentication

The SSH provider supports a secondary authentication mechanism: Sudo password authentication. This is useful if your security requirements are such that you require the SSH connection to be under a specific user's account instead of a generic "rundeck" account, and you still need to allow "sudo" level commands to be executed requiring a password to be entered.

This works in the following way:

• On Job execution, the user is prompted to enter a Sudo password
• After connecting to the remote node via SSH, a command requiring "sudo" authentication is issued, such as "sudo -u otheruser /sbin/some-command"
• The remote node will prompt for a sudo password, expecting user input
• The SSH Provider will write the password to the remote node
• The sudo command will execute as if a user had entered the command

Similarly to SSH Password authentication, Sudo Password Authentication requires:

• A Job must be defined specifying a Secure Option to prompt the user for the password
• Target nodes must be configured for Sudo authentication
• When the user executes the Job, they are prompted for the password. The Secure Option value for the password is not stored in the database, and is used only for that execution.

Therefore Sudo Password Authentication has several requirements and some limitations:

1. Sudo Password authenticated nodes can only be executed on via a defined Job, not via Ad-hoc commands (yet).
2. Each Job that will execute on Sudo Password Authenticated Nodes must define a Secure Option to prompt the user for the Sudo password before execution.
3. All Nodes using Sudo password authentication for a Job must have an equivalent Secure Option defined, or may use the same option name (or the default) if they share sudo authentication passwords.

Passwords for the nodes are input either via the GUI or arguments to the job if executed via CLI or API.

To enable Sudo Password Authentication, set the sudo-command-enabled property/attribute to true.

You can configure the way the Sudo Password Authentication works by setting these properties at the Node, Project or Rundeck scopes. Simply set the attribute name on a Node, the project.NAME in project.properties, or framework.NAME in framework.properties:

• sudo-command-enabled - set to "true" to enable Sudo Password Authentication.
• sudo-command-pattern - a regular expression to detect when a command execution should expect to require Sudo authentication. Default pattern is ^sudo$.
• sudo-password-option - an option reference ("option.NAME") to define which secure option value to use as password. The default is option.sudoPassword.
• sudo-prompt-pattern - a regular expression to detect the password prompt for the Sudo authentication. The default pattern is ^\[sudo\] password for .+: .*
• sudo-failure-pattern - a regular expression to detect the password failure response. The default pattern is ^.*try again.*.
• sudo-prompt-max-lines - maximum lines to read when expecting the password prompt. (default: 12).
• sudo-prompt-max-timeout - maximum milliseconds to wait for input when expecting the password prompt. (default 5000)
• sudo-response-max-lines - maximum lines to read when looking for failure response. (default: 2).
• sudo-response-max-timeout - maximum milliseconds to wait for response when detecting the failure response. (default 5000)
• sudo-fail-on-prompt-max-lines - true/false. If true, fail execution if max lines are reached looking for password prompt. (default: false)
• sudo-success-on-prompt-threshold - true/false. If true, succeed (without writing password), if the input max lines are reached without detecting password prompt. (default: true).
• sudo-fail-on-prompt-timeout - true/false. If true, fail execution if timeout reached looking for password prompt. (default: true)
• sudo-fail-on-response-timeout - true/false. If true, fail on timeout looking for failure message. (default: false)

Note: the default values have been set for the unix "sudo" command, but can be overridden if you need to customize the interaction.

Next, configure a Job, and include an Option definition where secureInput is set to true. The name of this option can be anything you want, but the default value of sudoPassword recognized by the plugin can be used.

If the value is not sudoPassword, then make sure to set the following attribute on each Node for password authentication:

• sudo-password-option = "option.NAME" where NAME is the name of the Job's secure option.

An example Node and Job option configuration are below:

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<node name="egon" description="egon" osFamily="unix"
    username="rundeck"
    hostname="egon"
    sudo-command-enabled="true"
    sudo-password-option="option.sudoPassword2" />

Job:

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<joblist>
    <job>
         <sequence keepgoing='false' strategy='node-first'>
          <command>
            <exec>sudo apachectl restart</exec>
          </command>
        </sequence>

        <context>
          <project>project</project>
          <options>
            <option required='true' name='sudoPassword2' secure='true' 
                    description="Sudo authentication password"/>
          </options>
        </context>
        ...
    </job>
</joblist>

Multiple Sudo Password Authentication

You can enable a further level of sudo password support for a node. If you have the requirement of executing a chain of "sudo" commands, such as "sudo -u user1 sudo -u user2 command", and need to enable password input for both levels of sudo. This is possible by configuring a secondary set of properties for your node/project/framework.

The configuration properties are the same as those for the first-level of sudo password authentication described in Configuring Secondary Sudo Password Authentication, but with a prefix of "sudo2-" instead of "sudo-", such as:

sudo2-command-enabled="true"
sudo2-command-pattern="^sudo .+? sudo .*$"

This would turn on a mechanism to expect and respond to another sudo password prompt when the command matches the given pattern.

If a value for "sudo2-password-option" is not set, then a default value of option.sudo2Password will be used.

A note about the "sudo2-command-pattern":

The sudo authentication mechanism uses two regular expressions to test whether it should be invoked.

For the first sudo authentication, the "sudo-command-pattern" value is matched against the first component of the command being executed. The default value for this pattern is ^sudo$. So a command like "sudo -u user1 some command" will match correctly. You can modify the regular expression (e.g. to support "su"), but it will always only match against the first part of the command.

If "sudo2-command-enabled" is "true", then the "sudo2-command-pattern" is also checked and if it matches then another sudo authentication is enabled. However this regular expression is tested against the entire command string to make it possible to determine whether it should be enabled. The default value is ^sudo .+? sudo .*$. If necessary you should customize the value.

SSH System Configuration

• The SSH configuration requires that the Rundeck server machine can ssh commands to the client machines.
• SSH is assumed to be installed and configured appropriately to allow this access.
  
• SSH can be configured for either password based authentication or public/private key based authentication.
• For public/private key authentication:
  • There are many resources available on how to configure ssh to use public key authentication instead of passwords such as: Password-less logins with OpenSSH.
  • If your private key file has a passphrase, each Job definition that will execute on the node must be configured correctly.
• For password authentication:
  • each Node definition must be configured to allow password authentication
  • each Job definition that will use it must be configured correctly

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/demo/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /home/demo/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/demo/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
a7:31:01:ca:f0:62:42:9d:ab:c8:b7:9c:d1:80:76:c6 demo@ubuntu
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
| .o . .          |
|.  * . .         |
|. = =   .        |
| = E     .       |
|+ + o   S .      |
|.o o .   =       |
|  o +   .        |
|   +             |
|                 |
+-----------------+

$ cd ~/.ssh
$ ls -la
-rw-r--r--   1 raj  staff     0 Nov 22 18:14 authorized_keys

$ chmod 600 authorized_keys 
$ ls -la
-rw-------   1 raj  staff     0 Nov 22 18:14 authorized_keys

$ ls -la
drwxr-xr-x   2 raj  staff    68 Nov 22 18:19 .ssh
$ chmod 700 .ssh
$ ls -la
drwx------   2 raj  staff    68 Nov 22 18:19 .ssh

# pass Rundeck variables
AcceptEnv RD_*