Linux users and vsftp

add users to vstftp

Yes, it is this simple, creating a new user for ftp access in vsftpd is as easy as creating a new valid linux system user.
# useradd username
# passwd username

Disable SSH access for FTP users
The default user creation script will give a user the /bin/bash shell, which can be a little too powerful.  If you don't want your users logging into your server via SSH, we need to know how to block this access.  If you change the shell to /bin/false, the users will only be able to login via ftp or mail if you have that setup. Here is how to modify your users:


usermod -s /sbin/nologin username


Chroot a user
Alright and probably the most important part of this article is the ability to lock a user down to their own home directory so they don't go around mucking with things they aren't supposed to. The beauty of this is it is a function built in to vsftpd and was partially covered in the Installing vsftpd article. All you have to do is add the username to the file /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list, each user on their own line.

That pretty much covers it for vsftpd, and at this point you should be able to create a new system user, set them up for vsftpd and do some basic tweaks to their access level.  These last two articles dealt with vsftpd in a CentOS Linux system.  Now we will show you how to install vsftpd on a server running Ubuntu. 




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#edit /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf or /opt/etc/vsftpd.conf
Open the vsftpd.conf file and search for chroot_list_enable=YES
Make sure it is YES. Do the same for the following variables
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list or /opt/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
chroot_list_enable=YES
Save and close the file

Create vsftpd.chroot_list in /etc/ or /opt/etc/
Add the username you want to export to ftp.
IMP: The user must already be a system user with a valid passwd. You must be able to find /home/
If the user you want to add is not a system user then create that user first before editing the above file.
#adduser 
#passwd 

Restart the vsftpd server using /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart or service vsftpd restart
Now you can log into ftp using the new user.

config changes

/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.config


anonymous_enable=NO
chroot_list_enable=NO                      /* jail the users to thier home dir*/
chroot_local_user=YES
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list    /* create that file*/