diff --git a/packaging/download_artifact.py b/packaging/download_artifact.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..16855c142b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/download_artifact.py
@@ -0,0 +1,367 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+# Copyright (c) 2014, Chris Schmidt <chris.schmidt () contrastsecurity.com>
+#
+# Built using https://github.com/hamnis/useful-scripts/blob/master/python/download-maven-artifact
+# as a reference and starting point.
+#
+#
+
+__author__ = 'cschmidt'
+
+from lxml import etree
+from urllib2 import Request, urlopen, URLError, HTTPError
+import os
+import hashlib
+import sys
+import base64
+
+DOCUMENTATION = '''
+---
+module: download_artifact
+short_description: Downloads an Artifact from a Maven Repository
+version_added: "historical"
+description:
+    - Downloads an artifact from a maven repository given the maven coordinates provided to the module. Can retrieve
+    - snapshots or release versions of the artifact and will resolve the latest available version if one is not
+    - available.
+author: Chris Schmidt <chris.schmidt () contrastsecurity.com>
+requirements:
+    - python libxml
+    - python urllib2
+options:
+    group_id:
+        description: The Maven groupId coordinate
+        required: true
+        default: null
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    artifact_id:
+        description: The maven artifactId coordinate
+        required: true
+        default: null
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    version:
+        description: The maven version coordinate
+        required: false
+        default: latest
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    classifier:
+        description: The maven classifier coordinate
+        required: false
+        default: null
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    extension:
+        description: The maven type/extension coordinate
+        required: false
+        default: jar
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    repository_url:
+        description: The URL of the Maven Repository to download from
+        required: false
+        default: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    username:
+        description: The username to authenticate as to the Maven Repository
+        required: false
+        default: null
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    password:
+        description: The passwor to authenticate with to the Maven Repository
+        required: false
+        default: null
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    target:
+        description: The path where the artifact should be written to
+        required: true
+        default: false
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+    state:
+        description: The desired state of the artifact
+        required: true
+        default: present
+        choices: [present,absent]
+        version_added: 0.0.1
+'''
+
+EXAMPLES = '''
+# Download the latest version of the commons-collections artifact from Maven Central
+- download_artifact: group_id=org.apache.commons artifact_id=commons-collections target=/tmp/commons-collections-latest.jar
+
+# Download Apache Commons-Collections 3.2 from Maven Central
+- download_artifact: group_id=org.apache.commons artifact_id=commons-collections version=3.2 target=/tmp/commons-collections-3.2.jar
+
+# Download an artifact from a private repository requiring authentication
+- download_artifact: group_id=com.company artifact_id=library-name repository_url=https://repo.company.com/maven username=user password=pass target=/tmp/library-name-latest.jar
+
+# Download a WAR File to the Tomcat webapps directory to be deployed
+- download_artifact: group_id=com.company artifact_id=web-app extension=war repository_url=https://repo.company.com/maven target=/var/lib/tomcat7/webapps/web-app.war
+'''
+
+
+class Artifact(object):
+    def __init__(self, group_id, artifact_id, version, classifier=None, extension=jar):
+        if not group_id:
+            raise ValueError("group_id must be set")
+        if not artifact_id:
+            raise ValueError("artifact_id must be set")
+
+        self.group_id = group_id
+        self.artifact_id = artifact_id
+        self.version = version
+        self.classifier = classifier
+
+        if not extension:
+            self.extension = "jar"
+        else:
+            self.extension = extension
+
+    def is_snapshot(self):
+        return self.version and self.version.endswith("SNAPSHOT")
+
+    def path(self, with_version=True):
+        base = self.group_id.replace(".", "/") + "/" + self.artifact_id
+        if with_version and self.version:
+            return base + "/" + self.version
+        else:
+            return base
+
+    def _generate_filename(self):
+        if not self.classifier:
+            return self.artifact_id + "." + self.extension
+        else:
+            return self.artifact_id + "-" + self.classifier + "." + self.extension
+
+    def get_filename(self, filename=None):
+        if not filename:
+            filename = self._generate_filename()
+        elif os.path.isdir(filename):
+            filename = os.path.join(filename, self._generate_filename())
+        return filename
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        if self.classifier:
+            return "%s:%s:%s:%s:%s" % (self.group_id, self.artifact_id, self.extension, self.classifier, self.version)
+        elif self.extension != "jar":
+            return "%s:%s:%s:%s" % (self.group_id, self.artifact_id, self.extension, self.version)
+        else:
+            return "%s:%s:%s" % (self.group_id, self.artifact_id, self.version)
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def parse(input):
+        parts = input.split(":")
+        if len(parts) >= 3:
+            g = parts[0]
+            a = parts[1]
+            v = parts[len(parts) - 1]
+            t = None
+            c = None
+            if len(parts) == 4:
+                t = parts[2]
+            if len(parts) == 5:
+                t = parts[2]
+                c = parts[3]
+            return Artifact(g, a, v, c, t)
+        else:
+            return None
+
+
+class MavenDownloader:
+    def __init__(self, base="http://repo1.maven.org/maven2", username=None, password=None):
+        if base.endswith("/"):
+            base = base.rstrip("/")
+        self.base = base
+        self.user_agent = "Maven Artifact Downloader/1.0"
+        self.username = username
+        self.password = password
+
+    def _find_latest_version_available(self, artifact):
+        path = "/%s/maven-metadata.xml" % (artifact.path(False))
+        xml = self._request(self.base + path, "Failed to download maven-metadata.xml", lambda r: etree.parse(r))
+        v = xml.xpath("/metadata/versioning/versions/version[last()]/text()")
+        if v:
+            return v[0]
+
+    def find_uri_for_artifact(self, artifact):
+        if artifact.is_snapshot():
+            path = "/%s/maven-metadata.xml" % (artifact.path())
+            xml = self._request(self.base + path, "Failed to download maven-metadata.xml", lambda r: etree.parse(r))
+            basexpath = "/metadata/versioning/"
+            p = xml.xpath(basexpath + "/snapshotVersions/snapshotVersion")
+            if p:
+                return self._find_matching_artifact(p, artifact)
+        else:
+            return self._uri_for_artifact(artifact)
+
+    def _find_matching_artifact(self, elems, artifact):
+        filtered = filter(lambda e: e.xpath("extension/text() = '%s'" % artifact.extension), elems)
+        if artifact.classifier:
+            filtered = filter(lambda e: e.xpath("classifier/text() = '%s'" % artifact.classifier), elems)
+
+        if len(filtered) > 1:
+            print(
+                "There was more than one match. Selecting the first one. Try adding a classifier to get a better match.")
+        elif not len(filtered):
+            print("There were no matches.")
+            return None
+
+        elem = filtered[0]
+        value = elem.xpath("value/text()")
+        return self._uri_for_artifact(artifact, value[0])
+
+    def _uri_for_artifact(self, artifact, version=None):
+        if artifact.is_snapshot() and not version:
+            raise ValueError("Expected uniqueversion for snapshot artifact " + str(artifact))
+        elif not artifact.is_snapshot():
+            version = artifact.version
+        if artifact.classifier:
+            return self.base + "/" + artifact.path() + "/" + artifact.artifact_id + "-" + version + "-" + artifact.classifier + "." + artifact.extension
+
+        return self.base + "/" + artifact.path() + "/" + artifact.artifact_id + "-" + version + "." + artifact.extension
+
+    def _request(self, url, failmsg, f):
+        if not self.username:
+            headers = {"User-Agent": self.user_agent}
+        else:
+            headers = {
+                "User-Agent": self.user_agent,
+                "Authorization": "Basic " + base64.b64encode(self.username + ":" + self.password)
+            }
+        req = Request(url, None, headers)
+        try:
+            response = urlopen(req)
+        except HTTPError, e:
+            raise ValueError(failmsg + " because of " + str(e) + "for URL " + url)
+        except URLError, e:
+            raise ValueError(failmsg + " because of " + str(e) + "for URL " + url)
+        else:
+            return f(response)
+
+
+    def download(self, artifact, filename=None):
+        filename = artifact.get_filename(filename)
+        if not artifact.version:
+            artifact = Artifact(artifact.group_id, artifact.artifact_id, self._find_latest_version_available(artifact),
+                                artifact.classifier, artifact.extension)
+
+        url = self.find_uri_for_artifact(artifact)
+        if not self.verify_md5(filename, url + ".md5"):
+            response = self._request(url, "Failed to download artifact " + str(artifact), lambda r: r)
+            if response:
+                with open(filename, 'w') as f:
+                    # f.write(response.read())
+                    self._write_chunks(response, f, report_hook=self.chunk_report)
+                return True
+            else:
+                return False
+        else:
+            return True
+
+    def chunk_report(self, bytes_so_far, chunk_size, total_size):
+        percent = float(bytes_so_far) / total_size
+        percent = round(percent * 100, 2)
+        sys.stdout.write("Downloaded %d of %d bytes (%0.2f%%)\r" %
+                         (bytes_so_far, total_size, percent))
+
+        if bytes_so_far >= total_size:
+            sys.stdout.write('\n')
+
+    def _write_chunks(self, response, file, chunk_size=8192, report_hook=None):
+        total_size = response.info().getheader('Content-Length').strip()
+        total_size = int(total_size)
+        bytes_so_far = 0
+
+        while 1:
+            chunk = response.read(chunk_size)
+            bytes_so_far += len(chunk)
+
+            if not chunk:
+                break
+
+            file.write(chunk)
+            if report_hook:
+                report_hook(bytes_so_far, chunk_size, total_size)
+
+        return bytes_so_far
+
+    def verify_md5(self, file, remote_md5):
+        if not os.path.exists(file):
+            return False
+        else:
+            local_md5 = self._local_md5(file)
+            remote = self._request(remote_md5, "Failed to download MD5", lambda r: r.read())
+            return local_md5 == remote
+
+    def _local_md5(self, file):
+        md5 = hashlib.md5()
+        with open(file, 'rb') as f:
+            for chunk in iter(lambda: f.read(8192), ''):
+                md5.update(chunk)
+        return md5.hexdigest()
+
+
+def main():
+    module = AnsibleModule(
+        argument_spec = dict(
+            group_id = dict(default=None),
+            artifact_id = dict(default=None),
+            version = dict(default=None),
+            classifier = dict(default=None),
+            extension = dict(default=None),
+            repository_url = dict(default=None),
+            username = dict(default=None),
+            password = dict(default=None),
+            state = dict(default="latest", choices=["present","absent"]),
+            target = dict(default=None),
+        )
+    )
+
+    group_id = module.params["group_id"]
+    artifact_id = module.params["artifact_id"]
+    version = module.params["version"]
+    classifier = module.params["classifier"]
+    extension = module.params["extension"]
+    repository_url = module.params["repository_url"]
+    repository_username = module.params["username"]
+    repository_password = module.params["password"]
+    state = module.params["state"]
+    target = module.params["target"]
+
+    if not repository_url:
+        repository_url = "http://repo1.maven.org/maven2"
+
+    downloader = MavenDownloader(repository_url, repository_username, repository_password)
+
+    try:
+        artifact = Artifact(group_id, artifact_id, version, classifier, extension)
+    except ValueError as e:
+        module.fail_json(msg=e.args[0])
+
+    prev_state = "absent"
+    if os.path.lexists(target):
+        prev_state = "present"
+    else:
+        path = os.path.dirname(target)
+        if not os.path.exists(path):
+            os.makedirs(path)
+
+    if prev_state == "present":
+        if state == "latest":
+            artifact_uri = downloader.find_uri_for_artifact(artifact)
+            if downloader.verify_md5(target, artifact_uri + ".md5"):
+                module.exit_json(target=target, state=state, changed=False)
+        else:
+            module.exit_json(target=target, state=state, changed=False)
+    try:
+        if downloader.download(artifact, target):
+            module.exit_json(state=state, target=target, group_id=group_id, artifact_id=artifact_id, version=version, classifier=classifier, extension=extension, repository_url=repository_url, changed=True)
+        else:
+            module.fail_json(msg="Unable to download the artifact")
+    except ValueError as e:
+        module.fail_json(msg=e.args[0])
+
+
+# import module snippets
+from ansible.module_utils.basic import *
+from ansible.module_utils.urls import *
+main()
\ No newline at end of file