Setup FTP server on Ubuntu 14.04
FTP is used to transfer files from one host to another over TCP network. This article explains how to setup FTP server on ubuntu 14.04 .
There are 3 popular FTP server packages available PureFTPD, VsFTPD and ProFTPD. Here i’ve used VsFTPD which is lightweight and less Vulnerability.
Step 1 » Update repositories .
krizna@leela:~$ sudo apt-get update
Step 2 » Install VsFTPD package using the below command.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo apt-get install vsftpd
Step 3 » After installation open /etc/vsftpd.conf file and make changes as follows.
Uncomment the below lines (line no:29 and 33).
write_enable=YES
» Uncomment the below line (line no: 120 ) to prevent access to the other folders outside the Home directory.
local_umask=022
chroot_local_user=YES
and add the following line at the end.
allow_writeable_chroot=YES
» Add the following lines to enable passive mode.
pasv_enable=Yes
pasv_min_port=40000
pasv_max_port=40100
Step 4 » Restart vsftpd service using the below command.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo service vsftpd restart
Step 5 » Now ftp server will listen on port 21. Create user with the below command.Use /usr/sbin/nologin shell to prevent access to the bash shell for the ftp users .
krizna@leela:~$ sudo useradd -m john -s /usr/sbin/nologin
krizna@leela:~$ sudo passwd john
Step 6 » Allow login access for nologin shell . Open /etc/shells and add the following line at the end.
/usr/sbin/nologin
Now try to connect this ftp server with the username on port 21 using winscp or filezilla client and make sure that user cannot access the other folders outside the home directory.
Please note using ftp on port 21 is a big security risk . it’s highly recommended to use SFTP. Please continue for SFTP configuration
Secure FTP ( SFTP )
SFTP is called as “Secure FTP” which generally use SSH File Transfer Protocol . so we need openssh-server package installed , Issue the below command if it’s not already installed.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server
Step 7 » Create a new group ftpaccess for FTP users.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo groupadd ftpaccess
Step 8 » Now make changes in this /etc/ssh/sshd_config file.
» Find the below line
Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server
and replace with
Subsystem sftp internal-sftp
» and comment the below line ( Last line).
Match group ftpaccess
ChrootDirectory %h
X11Forwarding no
AllowTcpForwarding no
ForceCommand internal-sftp
#UsePAM yes
Step 9 » Restart sshd service.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo service ssh restart
Step 10 » The below steps must be followed while creating Users for sftp access.
Create user john with ftpaccess group and /usr/bin/nologin shell.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo useradd -m john -g ftpaccess -s /usr/sbin/nologin
Change ownership for the home directory.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo passwd john
krizna@leela:~$ sudo chown root /home/john
Create a folder inside home directory for writing and change ownership of that folder.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo mkdir /home/john/www
krizna@leela:~$ sudo chown john:ftpaccess /home/john/www
Now try to connect server using SFTP ( port : 22 ) and makesure Users can upload files to www directory and cannot access other folders outside home directory.
If you want use both FTP and SFTP together, please perform above steps ( Step 10 ) while creating users . For existing users, move them to ftpaccess group and create folder structure and ownership changes as below.
krizna@leela:~$ sudo usermod john -g ftpaccess -s /usr/sbin/nologin
krizna@leela:~$ sudo chown root /home/john
krizna@leela:~$ sudo mkdir /home/john/www
krizna@leela:~$ sudo chown john:ftpaccess /home/john/www
Now john can able to upload files to www folder using FTP as well as SFTP.
Janeth Kent
Licenciada en Bellas Artes y programadora por pasión. Cuando tengo un rato retoco fotos, edito vídeos y diseño cosas. El resto del tiempo escribo en MA-NO WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT.
Related Posts
How To Use Varnish As A Highly Available Load Balancer On Ubuntu 20.04 With SSL
Load balancing with high availability can be tough to set up. Fortunately, Varnish HTTP Cache server provides a dead simple highly available load balancer that will also work as a…
Linux For Dummies: Permissions
In the previous articles I made a short introduction to the Unix world and in the following article I have dealt with the basic commands for the file system management. Today we are…
Linux for Dummies: Ubuntu Terminal
I introduced in the previous article, available here, the basic concepts concerning the Linux world. Today we are going to have a look to some basic operations that we can perform…
The Best RSS Readers for Ubuntu
Even if most of the tech experts actively claim that RSS (Rich Site Summary) is dead especially after Google Reader was discontinued 5 years ago but it isn’t yet as…
How to install Letsencrypt Certificates with Certbot in Ubuntu
In this article we will explain how to install, manage and configure the SSL Security certificate, Let's Encypt in NGINX server used as proxy. This certificate is free but does…
How to Set up a Fully Functional Mail Server on Ubuntu 16.04 with iRedMail
Setting up your own mail server from scratch on Linux is complex and tedious, until you meet iRedMail. This tutorial is going to show you how you can easily and…
GIMP 2.10 released: Features 32-bit support, new UI and A Ton Of Improvements
It's been over a half-decade since the GIMP 2.8 stable debut and today marks the long-awaited release of GIMP 2.10, its first major update in six years. And among other…
Setting Up SFTP on Ubuntu 16.04
I recently had a request to setup SFTP for a customer so they could manage a set of files in their environment through an FTP GUI. Being an avid user…
Install Java in Ubuntu 16.04
Java and the JVM (Java's virtual machine) are widely used and required for many kinds of software. This article will guide you through the process of installing and managing different…
ArangoDB, install and configure the popular Database in ubuntu 16.04
Introduction to ArangoDb, open source, NoSQL, multi-model database BigData seems to be getting stronger every day and more and more NoSQL databases are coming out to the market, all trying to position…
How to Choose a Laptop for Web Design and Development
Efficiency is important at work, no matter the type of job you do. The better the tools that you use, the more productive you are. So if you’re a web…
The Best Lightweight Linux Distributions For Older PC's
What do you do with your old computers? The one which once had good hardware configuration but now those are considered outdated. Why not revive your old computer with Linux?…