Installing vsftpd using text file for virtual users

12Sep/0912

Installing vsftpd using text file for virtual users

vsftpd is a secure, fast and stable FTP server. In this tutorial we'll install the server and make it check in a flat text file for virtual users allowed to login.

1. Install required packages

apt-get install vsftpd libpam-pwdfile

2. Configure vsftpd (pico /etc/vsftpd.conf)

Edit these variables in the config file and leave everything else with the default value.

anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES write_enable=YES local_umask=022 nopriv_user=vsftpd virtual_use_local_privs=YES guest_enable=YES user_sub_token=$USER local_root=/var/www/$USER chroot_local_user=YES hide_ids=YES guest_username=vsftpd

Set the local_root to the parent directory where the user's home directories are located

3. Configure PAM to check the passwd file for users (pico /etc/pam.d/vsftpd)

auth required pam_pwdfile.so pwdfile /etc/ftpd.passwd account required pam_permit.so

Make sure you remove everything else from the file

4. Create the passwd file containing the users

htpasswd -c /etc/ftpd.passwd user1

You can later add additional users to the file like this:

htpasswd /etc/ftpd.passwd user2

5. Create a local user that’s used by the virtual users to authenticate

useradd --home /home/vsftpd --gid nogroup -m --shell /bin/false vsftpd

6. Restart vsftpd

/etc/init.d/vsftpd restart

7. Create user's home directory since vsftpd doesn't do it automatically

mkdir /var/www/user1 chown vsftpd:nogroup /var/www/user1

Tagged as: FTP, lenny, vsftpd Leave a comment

Comments (12) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Jacob Fich
January 2nd, 2010 - 23:20

Hi.

NICE howto!

How do I create a symbolic link to an other virtual users files?
John
October 24th, 2010 - 04:30

Thanks – this description worked for me when others failed (e.g.:
http://howto.gumph.org/content/setup-virtual-users-and-directories-in-vsftpd/
)
Phil
August 1st, 2011 - 12:15

Amazing tutorial! Very simple, clear, and best of all, ACCURATE.

I have been trying different tutorials for hours now, and all of them were missing critical steps, such as setting up a local user, or setting permissions for the var/www/user1 folder.

I didn’t think it would be so hard to remember all the steps and put them in a tutorial…. But apparently it is very difficult!

Thank you, thank you, and thank you! You are one in a million!
jim
April 26th, 2012 - 13:43

One minor change that finally got it working for me. Add /bin/false to /etc/shells to make it a valid login shell for your virtual user.
Mahidul
May 9th, 2012 - 11:17

Thanks a lot… Great work … Worked like a charm ….
Claes
May 22nd, 2012 - 09:06

If you use Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS you need to use the -d in htpasswd since newer versions seems to use MD5 instead of Crypt that was default before.

Example to create a new ftpd.passwd file:
htpasswd -cd /etc/ftpd.passwd user1

Example of adding a new user to an existing ftpd.passwd file:
htpasswd -d /etc/ftpd.passwd user2
malte
August 11th, 2012 - 12:59

i cant login no matter what i try.
already added users without password.

always get :FAIL LOGIN in the log
Emilnd
September 5th, 2012 - 17:06

Malte, make sure you really have removed all the content of /etc/pam.d/vsftpd before you add the two lines (auth and account) to it! I had an really hard time getting the login to work but that solved it for me
shane
September 26th, 2012 - 16:02

The newest vsftpd from Ubuntu has a “security” update that fundamentally breaks most use cases for ftp.

It disallows writeable access to the chroot_dir
look here
http://www.benscobie.com/fixing-500-oops-vsftpd-refusing-to-run-with-writable-root-inside-chroot/
http://askubuntu.com/questions/128180/vsftpd-stopped-working-after-update
Taco Bob
November 3rd, 2012 - 23:02

Claes: that comment about htpasswd defaulting to md5? thank you so much. you just helped me solve a totally unrelated issue! woohoo!

More interesting information from the pam_pwdfile developer here: http://cpbotha.net/software/pam_pwdfile/
dan
January 29th, 2013 - 10:24

First, thanks for the ‘how-to’ – Excellent and clear to follow. I couldn’t get the “security” update to work by changing vsftpd.conf. But I was able to get it to work by adding a sub-folder to the root folder in step 7 with these changes. Make user1 unwriteable, make uploads writable. Minor nuisance, but it works.

mkdir /var/www/user1
mkdir /var/www/user1/uploads
chown -R vsftpd:nogroup /var/www/user1
chmod a-w /var/www/user1
Pete
May 13th, 2013 - 16:45

Ditto and ditto! Super clear instructions. Newbie in both linux and raaspberry, but managed is setting up raspian server from a Slitaz machine via ssh only.
Saw the same problems mentioned in comments, and solved them the same way.
Thnks to writer and commenteers for a great tutorial!!
/Pete