ftp server setup help

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

Hello all,

Am in the process of setting up ftp server in my RHEL3 box.

Here is where I downloaded the vsftp server
ftp://scary.beasts.org/users/cevans/vsftpd-2.1.1pre1.tar.gz

ftp server daemon is running fine, accepting connections from client but the issue is that 'user' I specifically created for this ftp is unable to login.

Created new user with : useradd
and shell as /dev/null and false login : /bin/false

Changed password with : passwd

anonymous login for ftp is disabled and local login is enabled

But I could not login using the username and password from ftp client.

Is there any setup or configuration that I have missed? Could you please point me to that ?

Many thanks in advance.

2

I think the ftp server requires the user to have a valid shell and (though I am not sure about vsftp as it is much more secure than most ftp servers) a writeable home directory. There are various restricted shells available, depending on your OS, mr. google should be able to help you out there. Have you looked through the vsftp docs? (vsftpd - Secure, fast FTP server for UNIX-like systems)

3

Why does it require a valid shell? I don't think that its needed.

Else, unlike a ftp login an user can login to the system as a normal user.

That is the reason, a '/dev/null' as the shell and /bin/false is set in passwd file.

4

A valid shell is defined by being in /etc/shells:

ant:/home/vbe/bin $ more /etc/shells
/usr/bin/false
/usr/lbin/uucp/uucico
/usr/bin/ksh
/usr/bin/rksh
/usr/bin/sh
/usr/bin/ssh
/usr/bin/rsh
/sbin/sh
/bin/sh
/bin/ksh
/usr/dt/bin/dtksh
/usr/bin/csh

So thats not the reason...
Have you looked at your files ftpaccess and ftpgroups (for me in /etc/ftpd with your soft no idea...)
(Just thoughts..)