diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
index 177396d4d7..6eea60d825 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
@@ -34,6 +34,29 @@ BOOLEANS = BOOLEANS_TRUE + BOOLEANS_FALSE
 
 SIZE_RANGES = { 'Y': 1<<80, 'Z': 1<<70, 'E': 1<<60, 'P': 1<<50, 'T': 1<<40, 'G': 1<<30, 'M': 1<<20, 'K': 1<<10, 'B': 1 }
 
+FILE_ATTRIBUTES = {
+  'A': 'noatime',
+  'a': 'append',
+  'c': 'compressed',
+  'C': 'nocow',
+  'd': 'nodump',
+  'D': 'dirsync',
+  'e': 'extents',
+  'E': 'encrypted',
+  'h': 'blocksize',
+  'i': 'immutable',
+  'I': 'indexed',
+  'j': 'journalled',
+  'N': 'inline',
+  's': 'zero',
+  'S': 'synchronous',
+  't': 'notail',
+  'T': 'blockroot',
+  'u': 'undelete',
+  'X': 'compressedraw',
+  'Z': 'compresseddirty',
+}
+
 # ansible modules can be written in any language.  To simplify
 # development of Python modules, the functions available here can
 # be used to do many common tasks
@@ -203,6 +226,7 @@ FILE_COMMON_ARGUMENTS=dict(
     delimiter = dict(), # used by assemble
     directory_mode = dict(), # used by copy
     unsafe_writes  = dict(type='bool'), # should be available to any module using atomic_move
+    attributes = dict(aliases=['attr']),
 )
 
 PASSWD_ARG_RE = re.compile(r'^[-]{0,2}pass[-]?(word|wd)?')
@@ -618,6 +642,19 @@ def _lenient_lowercase(lst):
             lowered.append(value)
     return lowered
 
+def format_attributes(attributes):
+    attribute_list = []
+    for attr in attributes:
+        if attr in FILE_ATTRIBUTES:
+            attribute_list.append(FILE_ATTRIBUTES[attr])
+    return attribute_list
+
+def get_flags_from_attributes(attributes):
+    flags = []
+    for key,attr in FILE_ATTRIBUTES.iteritems():
+        if attr in attributes:
+            flags.append(key)
+    return ''.join(flags)
 
 class AnsibleFallbackNotFound(Exception):
     pass
@@ -759,10 +796,11 @@ class AnsibleModule(object):
             if i is not None and secontext[i] == '_default':
                 secontext[i] = default_secontext[i]
 
+        attributes = params.get('attributes', None)
         return dict(
             path=path, mode=mode, owner=owner, group=group,
             seuser=seuser, serole=serole, setype=setype,
-            selevel=selevel, secontext=secontext,
+            selevel=selevel, secontext=secontext, attributes=attributes,
         )
 
 
@@ -1058,6 +1096,56 @@ class AnsibleModule(object):
                 changed = True
         return changed
 
+    def set_attributes_if_different(self, path, attributes, changed, diff=None):
+
+        if attributes is None:
+            return changed
+
+        b_path = to_bytes(path, errors='surrogate_or_strict')
+        b_path = os.path.expanduser(os.path.expandvars(b_path))
+        existing = self.get_file_attributes(b_path)
+
+        if existing.get('attr_flags','') != attributes:
+            attrcmd = self.get_bin_path('chattr')
+            if attrcmd:
+                attrcmd = [attrcmd, '=%s' % attributes, b_path]
+                changed = True
+
+                if diff is not None:
+                    if 'before' not in diff:
+                        diff['before'] = {}
+                    diff['before']['attributes'] = existing.get('attr_flags')
+                    if 'after' not in diff:
+                        diff['after'] = {}
+                    diff['after']['attributes'] = attributes
+
+                if not self.check_mode:
+                    try:
+                        rc, out, err = self.run_command(attrcmd)
+                        if rc != 0 or err:
+                            raise Exception("Error while setting attributes: %s" % (out + err))
+                    except:
+                        e = get_exception()
+                        self.fail_json(path=path, msg='chattr failed', details=str(e))
+        return changed
+
+    def get_file_attributes(self, path):
+        output = {}
+        attrcmd = self.get_bin_path('lsattr', False)
+        if attrcmd:
+            attrcmd = [attrcmd, '-vd', path]
+            try:
+                rc, out, err = self.run_command(attrcmd)
+                if rc == 0:
+                    res = out.split(' ')[0:2]
+                    output['attr_flags'] =  res[1].replace('-','').strip()
+                    output['version'] = res[0].strip()
+                    output['attributes'] = format_attributes(output['attr_flags'])
+            except:
+                pass
+        return output
+
+
     def _symbolic_mode_to_octal(self, path_stat, symbolic_mode):
         new_mode = stat.S_IMODE(path_stat.st_mode)
 
@@ -1167,6 +1255,9 @@ class AnsibleModule(object):
         changed = self.set_mode_if_different(
             file_args['path'], file_args['mode'], changed, diff
         )
+        changed = self.set_attributes_if_different(
+            file_args['path'], file_args['attributes'], changed, diff
+        )
         return changed
 
     def set_directory_attributes_if_different(self, file_args, changed, diff=None):
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/module_docs_fragments/files.py b/lib/ansible/utils/module_docs_fragments/files.py
index 9bc40a0929..fc1ca70892 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/module_docs_fragments/files.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/module_docs_fragments/files.py
@@ -70,4 +70,11 @@ options:
     required: false
     default: false
     version_added: "2.2"
+  attributes:
+    description:
+      - Attributes of the file or directory should be. To get supported flags look at the man page for I(chattr) on the taget system.
+    required: false
+    default: None
+    aliases: ['attr']
+    version_added: "2.3"
 """
diff --git a/test/units/module_utils/test_basic.py b/test/units/module_utils/test_basic.py
index 6da86db2a1..a03e3401f1 100644
--- a/test/units/module_utils/test_basic.py
+++ b/test/units/module_utils/test_basic.py
@@ -422,6 +422,7 @@ class TestModuleUtilsBasic(ModuleTestCase):
         final_params.update(dict(
             path = '/path/to/real_file',
             secontext=['unconfined_u', 'object_r', 'default_t', 's0'],
+            attributes=None,
         ))
 
         # with the proper params specified, the returned dictionary should represent