Installing vsftpd using text file for virtual users

12Sep/0911

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

sudo apt-get install vsftpd libpam-pwdfile

2. Configure vsftpd (sudo 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 chroot_local_user=YES virtual_use_local_privs=YES guest_enable=YES user_sub_token=$USER local_root=/var/www/$USER hide_ids=YES

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 (sudo 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

sudo htpasswd -c /etc/ftpd.passwd user1

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

sudo htpasswd /etc/ftpd.passwd user2

5. Restart vsftpd

sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart

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

sudo mkdir /var/www/user1

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Tagged as: ftp, vsftpd Leave a comment

Comments (11) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Josh Howenstine
November 12th, 2009 - 02:33

This was just what I was looking for. Thank You for posting this!
Totya
January 8th, 2010 - 13:15

Thank You for this tutorial!
Gangsterkb
March 30th, 2010 - 17:44

Hi,

I just did this tutorial but i came up with a 530 Login incorrect. error!

Help?
aip
March 31st, 2010 - 00:03

@Gangsterkb: Can you check if you see any related messages in /var/log/auth.log or /var/log/vsftpd.log?
Renoir Boulanger
April 29th, 2010 - 21:27

Hey thanks, I was searching for this!! Precise and clear. I might translate it and put it on my site. Tested procedure under Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.
quimkaos
May 18th, 2010 - 12:40

Isn’t this the same as creating an user with the Ubuntu standard PAM system?
quimkaos
May 18th, 2010 - 12:50

or this is to make it more secure? using a PAM system that is independent from normal users?

what about virtual folders?
quimkaos
May 19th, 2010 - 08:14

i’m getting a “553 Could not create file” error in Ubuntu 10.04
iMadalin
June 2nd, 2010 - 01:55

in Ubuntu 10.04 : 550 Create directory operation failed.
Serrano
June 22nd, 2010 - 15:40

The above tutorial doesn’t work for me in Ubuntu 10.04. I created the user ‘quad’ using the above method, but when I try to login, I get this error:
ftp> open localhost
Connected to localhost.
220 (vsFTPd 2.2.2)
Name (localhost:serrano): quad
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
530 Login incorrect.
Login failed.

I am able to login with my user account though.
Serrano
June 22nd, 2010 - 15:52

Forget my last comment. It seems that sometimes “sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart” doesn’t immediately load the new settings. After I rebooted, everything worked fine