How to decrypt string with ansible-vault 2.3.0

Question

I have been waiting for ansible 2.3 as it was going to introduce encrypt_string feature.

Unfortuately I'm not sure how can I read the encrypted string.

I did try decrypt_string, decrypt (the file), view (the file) and nothing works.

cat test.yml 
---
test: !vault |
     $ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.1;AES256
     37366638363362303836383335623066343562666662386233306537333232396637346463376430
     3664323265333036663736383837326263376637616466610a383430623562633235616531303861
     66313432303063343230613665323930386138613334303839626131373033656463303736366166
     6635346135636437360a313031376566303238303835353364313434363163343066363932346165
     6136

The error I'm geeting is ERROR! input is not vault encrypted data for test.yml

How can I decrypt the string so I know what it's value without the need to run the play?

Answer 1

You can also do with plain ansible command for respective host/group/inventory combination, e.g.:

$ ansible my_server -m debug -a 'var=my_secret'
my_server | SUCCESS => {
    "my_secret": "373861663362363036363361663037373661353137303762"
}