Chapter 3. Collections and content signing in private automation hub

Procedure

1. Create a signing script that only accepts a filename.

   Note

   This script will act as the signing service and must generate an ascii-armored detached gpg signature for that file using the key specified through the PULP_SIGNING_KEY_FINGERPRINT environment variable.

   The script then prints out a JSON structure with the following format.

   {"file": "filename", "signature": "filename.asc"}

   All the file names are relative paths inside the current working directory. The file name must remain the same for the detached signature, as shown.

   The following example shows a script that produces signatures for content:

   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   
   FILE_PATH=$1
   SIGNATURE_PATH="$1.asc"
   
   ADMIN_ID="$PULP_SIGNING_KEY_FINGERPRINT"
   PASSWORD="password"
   
   # Create a detached signature
   gpg --quiet --batch --pinentry-mode loopback --yes --passphrase \
      $PASSWORD --homedir ~/.gnupg/ --detach-sign --default-key $ADMIN_ID \
      --armor --output $SIGNATURE_PATH $FILE_PATH
   
   # Check the exit status
   STATUS=$?
   if [ $STATUS -eq 0 ]; then
      echo {\"file\": \"$FILE_PATH\", \"signature\": \"$SIGNATURE_PATH\"}
   else
      exit $STATUS
   fi

   After you deploy a private automation hub with signing enabled to your Ansible Automation Platform cluster, new UI additions display when you interact with collections.

2. Review the Ansible Automation Platform installer inventory file for options that begins with automationhub_*.

   [all:vars]
   .
   .
   .
   automationhub_create_default_collection_signing_service = True
   automationhub_auto_sign_collections = True
   automationhub_require_content_approval = True
   automationhub_collection_signing_service_key = /abs/path/to/galaxy_signing_service.gpg
   automationhub_collection_signing_service_script = /abs/path/to/collection_signing.sh

   The two new keys (automationhub_auto_sign_collections and automationhub_require_content_approval) indicate that the collections must be signed and require approval after they are uploaded to private automation hub.

Procedure

1. Log in to your private automation hub instance in the automation hub UI.
2. In the left navigation, click Collections Approval. The Approval dashboard is displayed with a list of collections.
3. Click Sign and approve for each collection you want to sign.
4. Verify that the collections you signed and approved manually are displayed in the Collections tab.

Procedure

1. To import a public key into a non-default keyring for use with ansible-galaxy, run the following command.

   gpg --import --no-default-keyring --keyring ~/.ansible/pubring.kbx my-public-key.asc

   Note

   In addition to any signatures provided by the automation hub, signature sources can also be provided in the requirements file and on the command line. Signature sources should be URIs.

2. Use the --signature option to verify the collection name provided on the CLI with an additional signature.

   ansible-galaxy collection install namespace.collection
   --signature https://examplehost.com/detached_signature.asc
   --signature file:///path/to/local/detached_signature.asc --keyring ~/.ansible/pubring.kbx

   You can use this option multiple times to provide multiple signatures.

3. Confirm that the collections in a requirements file list any additional signature sources following the collection’s signatures key, as in the following example.

   # requirements.yml
   collections:
     - name: ns.coll
       version: 1.0.0
       signatures:
         - https://examplehost.com/detached_signature.asc
         - file:///path/to/local/detached_signature.asc
   
   ansible-galaxy collection verify -r requirements.yml --keyring ~/.ansible/pubring.kbx

   When you install a collection from automation hub, the signatures provided by the server are saved along with the installed collections to verify the collection’s authenticity.

4. (Optional) If you need to verify the internal consistency of your collection again without querying the Ansible Galaxy server, run the same command you used previously using the --offline option.