VSFTPD: a primer
Clint Savage
What is VSFTPD?
- VSFTPD - Very Secure FTP Daemon
- Default FTP Server for Fedora/Red Hat
- Not Default FTP Server for Ubuntu (proftpd)
- Provides both anonymous and non-anonymous ftp service
- Designed to be a secure, scalable, stable, fast FTP daemon
FTP Protocol
- Two Modes
- Active
- Control Connection - TCP port 21
- Data Connection - TCP port 20
- Passive
- Control Connection - TCP port 21
- Data Connection - Ports determined within Control Connection
Installation/Configuration
- Fedora/Red Hat
- yum install vsftpd
- Provides /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
- Ubuntu
- sudo aptitude install vsftpd
- Provides /etc/vsftpd.conf
Configuration Files Explained
- vsftpd.conf - main configuration file
man vsftpd.conf for all options and explanations
- Useful Options
- anonymous_enable=YES|NO - allows/disallows anonymous users
- anon_upload_enable=YES|NO - Does not work without serious reconfiguration in Ubuntu
- local_enable=YES|NO - allows/disallows users on the server
- ftp_username - userid vsftpd will use when validating perms and writing files
- anon_root=/path/to/anonymous/upload/dir/
- Fedora/Red Hat - chrooted by default to /var/ftp/
- Ubuntu - nothing provided by default (/home/ftp/ recommended)
- vsftpd.ftpusers - disallows ftp access to members of list
- /etc/pam.d/vsftpd - controls authentication and authorization