HOWTO : Create a FTP server with user access (proftpd)

[angelkiller]

Ok, I followed you guide from the first page and got proftpd set up. Everything is working. But there are some things I'd like to change about how it works. First, before I used your guide, I was logging into the server (via ftp) with the same user/password that I used to log into the system. I was using whatever proftpd.conf that came installed. (I didn't change anything.) My first question is how safe is that? Now, when logged in as that user, I could go anywhere on the filesystem that I wanted. I liked being able to access everything. How can I do this again?

I'm no linux expert, so keep that in mind. Thanks!

[frodon]

If you mean access your whole system nothing is more dangerous and i would strongly advice you ssh over FTP for this use.

Having said this you only need to set the defaultroot directory to /

[angelkiller]

Thanks for the response. So giving access to / over FTP is really unsafe. Why? I enabled TLS/SSL encryption from the guide. Is this secure enough? If not, exactly to I use SSH and FTP together?

Now you also said that to give me access to / all I had to do was change defaultroot to /. I did this but nothing seems to have changed. / is my default folder, but the only folders I have access to are still the upload and download folders. Is there something else I have to change?

Thanks again.

[frodon]

Have you modified both ? :

# Set /home/FTP-shared directory as home directory
DefaultRoot /home/FTP-shared

# Lock all the users in home directory, ***** really important *****
DefaultRoot ~

Giving access to / is unsafe by nature and in general users giving access to / want to remotely administrate their computer that's why ssh is more used when you want full access.

Now about the easiest to crack between FTP with TLS and SHH i don't know but in both cases i strongly recommend you a well definied firewall maybe also protecting you against from brute force attacks and before all strong password .

[Mantecore]

proftpd is working great, but I have a quick question about the Useful Trick permament mount trick. Here is my /etc/fstab file (I've added the last 3 lines).

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# /dev/sdb1
UUID=20d564bc-2e44-42b8-8918-968c182aacb6 /               ext3    relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/sdb5
UUID=db43db79-44cc-4a20-8e31-6e8be90dd54a none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/scd1       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom1   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/sda1 	/media/hd2 ext3 defaults			  0 	 0
/media/hd2/backup/externalHD/My\ Music /media/music vfat bind 0 0
/media/music /home/steve/music vfat bind 0 0

but when I boot, the folders don't automatically mount and when I run sudo mount -a I get the output

steve@sklesser-server:/media/music$ sudo mount -a
[mntent]: line 13 in /etc/fstab is bad

where line 13 is the second to last line. However, when I run sudo mount -o bind it works. Any ideas on what could be causing this? Thank you!

[frodon]

From my first looking i see no biog mistake however i find it strange that you mount a directory in another one to mount again this directory elsewhere, i have never tested the mount -o bind command with 2 layers of bind.

[Penteado]

Hello, i followed the guide. But i cant connect to the ftp server even on LAN. The ftp server is on my desktop and im trying to connect from my laptop. I've enabled the port forwarding to port 21 but still no connection ...

I can see that the service is up and running .

bruno@bruno-desktop:~$ ps aux | grep proftp 
nobody    7445  0.0  0.1   9908  1604 ?        Ss   11:13   0:00 proftpd: (accepting connections)

I'll paste my proftpd.conf

#
# /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf -- This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file.
# To really apply changes reload proftpd after modifications.
# 

# Includes DSO modules
Include /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

# Set off to disable IPv6 support which is annoying on IPv4 only boxes.
UseIPv6				off

ServerName			"Debian"
ServerType			standalone
DeferWelcome			off

MultilineRFC2228		on
DefaultServer			on
ShowSymlinks			on

TimeoutNoTransfer		600
TimeoutStalled			600
TimeoutIdle			1200

DisplayLogin                    welcome.msg
DisplayChdir               	.message true
ListOptions                	"-l"

#DenyFilter			\*.*/

# Use this to jail all users in their homes 
DefaultRoot			~

# Users require a valid shell listed in /etc/shells to login.
# Use this directive to release that constrain.
# RequireValidShell		off

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port				21

# In some cases you have to specify passive ports range to by-pass
# firewall limitations. Ephemeral ports can be used for that, but
# feel free to use a more narrow range.
# PassivePorts                  49152 65534

# If your host was NATted, this option is useful in order to
# allow passive tranfers to work. You have to use your public
# address and opening the passive ports used on your firewall as well.
# MasqueradeAddress		1.2.3.4

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30.  If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value.  Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd)
MaxInstances			30

# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User				nobody
Group				nogroup

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
# (second parm) from being group and world writable.
Umask				022  022
# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
AllowOverwrite			on

# Uncomment this if you are using NIS or LDAP via NSS to retrieve passwords:
# PersistentPasswd		off

# This is required to use both PAM-based authentication and local passwords
# AuthOrder			*mod_auth_pam.c mod_auth_unix.c

# Be warned: use of this directive impacts CPU average load!
# Uncomment this if you like to see progress and transfer rate with ftpwho
# in downloads. That is not needed for uploads rates.
#
# UseSendFile			off

# Choose a SQL backend among MySQL or PostgreSQL.
# Both modules are loaded in default configuration, so you have to specify the backend 
# or comment out the unused module in /etc/proftpd/modules.conf.
# Use 'mysql' or 'postgres' as possible values.
#
#<IfModule mod_sql.c>
# SQLBackend			mysql
#</IfModule>

TransferLog /var/log/proftpd/xferlog
SystemLog   /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log

<IfModule mod_quotatab.c>
QuotaEngine off
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ratio.c>
Ratios off
</IfModule>


# Delay engine reduces impact of the so-called Timing Attack described in
# http://security.lss.hr/index.php?page=details&ID=LSS-2004-10-02
# It is on by default. 
<IfModule mod_delay.c>
DelayEngine on
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls.c>
ControlsEngine        off
ControlsMaxClients    2
ControlsLog           /var/log/proftpd/controls.log
ControlsInterval      5
ControlsSocket        /var/run/proftpd/proftpd.sock
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls_admin.c>
AdminControlsEngine off
</IfModule>

#
# Alternative authentication frameworks
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/ldap.conf
#Include /etc/proftpd/sql.conf

#
# This is used for FTPS connections
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/tls.conf

# A basic anonymous configuration, no upload directories.

# <Anonymous ~ftp>
#   User				ftp
#   Group				nogroup
#   # We want clients to be able to login with "anonymous" as well as "ftp"
#   UserAlias			anonymous ftp
#   # Cosmetic changes, all files belongs to ftp user
#   DirFakeUser	on ftp
#   DirFakeGroup on ftp
# 
#   RequireValidShell		off
# 
#   # Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins
#   MaxClients			10
# 
#   # We want 'welcome.msg' displayed at login, and '.message' displayed
#   # in each newly chdired directory.
#   DisplayLogin			welcome.msg
#   DisplayFirstChdir		.message
# 
#   # Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot
#   <Directory *>
#     <Limit WRITE>
#       DenyAll
#     </Limit>
#   </Directory>
# 
#   # Uncomment this if you're brave.
#   # <Directory incoming>
#   #   # Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
#   #   # (second parm) from being group and world writable.
#   #   Umask				022  022
#   #            <Limit READ WRITE>
#   #            DenyAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   #            <Limit STOR>
#   #            AllowAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   # </Directory>
# 
# </Anonymous>

#VALID LOGINS
<Limit LOGIN>
AllowUser userftp
DenyALL
</Limit>

<Directory /home/bruno/FTP-shared/>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off
	<Limit MKD STOR DELE XMKD RNRF RNTO RMD XRMD>
	DenyAll
	</Limit>
</Directory>

<Directory /home/bruno/FTP-shared/download/*>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off
	<Limit MKD STOR DELE XMKD RNEF RNTO RMD XRMD>
	DenyAll
	</Limit>
</Directory>

<Directory> /home/bruno/FTP-shared/upload/>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite on
	<Limit READ RMD DELE>
      	DenyAll
    	</Limit>

    	<Limit STOR CWD MKD>
      	AllowAll
    	</Limit>
</Directory>

I'm on Hardy , 8.04 2.6.24-21 kernel.

I'll apreciatte any help.

Thank You

[frodon]

Could you paste you FTP client log so that we can see the nature of the problem ?

Thanks.

[Penteado]

Log shows a blank, it just hangs when i try to log in. :s

just says :

    Looking up : 192.168.1.67
    Trying 192.168.1.67:21

I think the problem isnt on the proftpd configuration but something else, because i also tried trough ssh and hangs the same way. I openned both ports on router. Dont know what to do next :/

[Penteado]

I just tried on locahost and it works fine. Besides port forwarding port 21, is there any other issues that block external connections(including LAN) ?

Note : just notice i cant even ping both machines ( helpful ? )

Send Note : Have been done some reading altough i couldnt understand much, found some threads talking about iptables and ftp/ssh servers. Doest iptables by default block this kind of services? I never worked with those before, and never changed anything since i installed ubuntu.

Thank you in advance