proftpd FTP Server setup on Ubuntu

A- The GUI way (for beginners only)

For those who are new to linux and don't want to use a FTP server without GUI, or just for those who don't use often their FTP server and wish to set it quickly without a high level of security, there is a GTK GUI for proftpd.
Be careful, it's less secure than configuring yourself your server.

1- Install proftpd and gproftpd with synaptic or with this command :

Code:

sudo apt-get install proftpd gproftpd

2-Play with the GUI and set up quickly your server.
Beware no support is offered here for this tool but it shouldn't be too hard to use.

B- The secure way

1- Install proftpd with synaptic or with this command :

Code:

sudo apt-get install proftpd

2- Add this line in /etc/shells file (sudo gedit /etc/shells to open the file) :

Code:

/bin/false

Create a /home/FTP-shared directory :

Code:

cd /home
sudo mkdir FTP-shared

Create a user named userftp which will be used only for ftp access. This user don't need a valid shell (more secure) therefore select /bin/false shell for userftp and /home/FTP-shared as home directory (property button in user and group window).
To make this section clearer, i give you the equivalent command line to create the user, but it would be better to use the GUI (System > Administration > User & Group) to create the user since users here often got problems with the user creation and the password (530 error) with the command line, so i really advice to use the GUI :

Code:

sudo useradd userftp -p your_password -d /home/FTP-shared -s /bin/false
sudo passwd userftp

In FTP-shared directory create a download and an upload directory :

Code:

cd /home/FTP-shared/
sudo mkdir download
sudo mkdir upload

Now we have to set the good permissions for these directories :

Code:

cd /home
sudo chmod 755 FTP-shared
cd FTP-shared
sudo chmod 755 download
sudo chmod 777 upload

3- OK, now go to the proftpd configuration file :

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/proftpd.conf

or for edgy eft (ubuntu 6.10) :

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf

and edit your proftpd.conf file like that if it fit to your need :

Code:

# To really apply changes reload proftpd after modifications.
AllowOverwrite on
AuthAliasOnly on

# Choose here the user alias you want !!!!
UserAlias sauron userftp

ServerName			"ChezFrodon"
ServerType 			standalone
DeferWelcome			on

MultilineRFC2228 on
DefaultServer			on
ShowSymlinks			off

TimeoutNoTransfer 600
TimeoutStalled 100
TimeoutIdle 2200

DisplayChdir                    .message
ListOptions                	"-l"

RequireValidShell 		off

TimeoutLogin 20

RootLogin 			off

# It's better for debug to create log files ;-)
ExtendedLog 			/var/log/ftp.log
TransferLog 			/var/log/xferlog
SystemLog			/var/log/syslog.log

#DenyFilter			\*.*/

# I don't choose to use /etc/ftpusers file (set inside the users you want to ban, not useful for me)
UseFtpUsers off

# Allow to restart a download
AllowStoreRestart		on

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port, so you may prefer to use another port for security reasons (choose here the port you want)
Port				1980

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30.  If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value.  Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd)
MaxInstances 8

# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User                  nobody
Group                 nogroup

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
# (second parm) from being group and world writable.
Umask				022	022

PersistentPasswd		off

MaxClients 8
MaxClientsPerHost 8
MaxClientsPerUser 8
MaxHostsPerUser 8

# Display a message after a successful login
AccessGrantMsg "welcome !!!"
# This message is displayed for each access good or not
ServerIdent                  on       "you're at home"

# Lock all the users in home directory, ***** really important *****
DefaultRoot ~

MaxLoginAttempts    5

#VALID LOGINS
<Limit LOGIN>
AllowUser userftp
DenyALL
</Limit>

<Directory /home/FTP-shared>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off
	<Limit MKD STOR DELE XMKD RNRF RNTO RMD XRMD>
	DenyAll
	</Limit>
</Directory>

<Directory /home/FTP-shared/download/*>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off
	<Limit MKD STOR DELE XMKD RNEF RNTO RMD XRMD>
	DenyAll
	</Limit>
</Directory>

<Directory /home/FTP-shared/upload/>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite on
	<Limit READ RMD DELE>
      	DenyAll
    	</Limit>

    	<Limit STOR CWD MKD>
      	AllowAll
    	</Limit>
</Directory>

Ok you have done proftpd configuration. Your server is on port 1980 (in this exemple) and the access parameters are
user : sauron
password : the one you've set for userftp

4- To start/stop/restart your server :

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/proftpd start
sudo /etc/init.d/proftpd stop
sudo /etc/init.d/proftpd restart

To perform a syntax check of your proftpd.conf file :

Code:

sudo proftpd -td5

To know who is connected on your server in realtime use "ftptop" command (use "t" caracter to swich to rate display), you can also use the "ftpwho" command.
other informations here

C- Advanced tricks

1- Enable TLS/SSL encryption (FTPS)
** Inportant note : proftpd versions before 1.3.2-rc2 may not work with latest filezilla versions using TLS encryption. See raymond.szebin's post for details.

The FTP file sharing protocol is an old protocol which was created when internet was still a secure place, therefore the default FTP protocol is not that secure.
For example the password and username for login are transmitted in plain text which obviously isn't secure.
That why, to fit the needs of our generation, encryption solutions were developed and one of them is TLS/SSH encryption.
This will encrypt the username and password and all the data you send, obviously to use it the FTP client must support SFTP protocol.

here are the steps to enable TLS/SSH encryption (FTPS):

Paste these commands in a terminal :

Code:

sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
cd /etc
sudo mkdir ftpcert
cd ftpcert/
sudo openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
sudo openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
sudo openssl genrsa -des3 -out ca.key 1024
sudo openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -key ca.key -out ca.crt 
** download the sign.sh file (at the bottom of the post) and put it in ftpcert directory **
sudo chmod +x sign.sh
sudo ./sign.sh server.csr

Then add this section to yout proftpd.conf file :

Code:

<IfModule mod_tls.c>
    TLSEngine on
    TLSLog /var/ftpd/tls.log
    TLSProtocol TLSv1

    # Are clients required to use FTP over TLS when talking to this server?
    TLSRequired off

    # Server's certificate
    TLSRSACertificateFile /etc/ftpcert/server.crt
    TLSRSACertificateKeyFile /etc/ftpcert/server.key

    # CA the server trusts
    TLSCACertificateFile /etc/ftpcert/ca.crt

    # Authenticate clients that want to use FTP over TLS?
    TLSVerifyClient off
</IfModule>

If you use edgy or proftpd 1.3 in general add this line at the beginning of your proftpd.conf file, it will load all the extra modules like mod_tls.c :

Code:

Include /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

Note - Use TLSRequired ON to force the use of TLS. OFF means that the use of TLS is optional.

Optional step:
You will notice that you will be asked for the password you set for the server.key file each time you start/stop/restart the server, it is because the RSA private key is encrypted in the server.key file.
The solution is to remove the encryption of the RSA private key but it makes the key readable in the server.key file which is obviously less secure, anyway if you do that make sure that the server.key is readable only by root.
Once you know that it's less secure here are the command lines to remove the encryption of the RSA private key :

Code:

cd /etc/ftpcert
cp server.key server.key.org
openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key

Here are some links to read in case of problems or just to get more informations :
http://www.modssl.org/docs/2.7/ssl_faq.html#cert-ownca
http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/doc...HOWTO-TLS.html

To use your TLS encrypted FTP server you will need a FTP client which support it like the latest versions of filezilla (the one present in the feisty repository has the TLS support).
In filezilla the option to use is called FTPES.

Thanks to nix4me for the help he provided and for the instructions.

2- Restrict access for some users
Some of you wish, for different reasons, to create more than one user and give a different access depending on the user.
For example if i create 2 users, one called user1 and the second called user2 and then want to deny access to the download directory for user2, You can do it as following :

First create the 2 users like userftp in the guide and give them alias names if you use aliases. Then allow your 2 users in the general LIMIT LOGIN section :

Code:

#VALID LOGINS
<Limit LOGIN>
AllowUser user1
AllowUser user2
DenyALL
</Limit>

Once done here is how to modify the directory sections to chose who is able to use which directory :

Code:

<Directory /home/FTP-shared/download/*>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite off

        <Limit ALL>
		Order Allow,Deny
		AllowUser user1
		Deny ALL
	</Limit>

	<Limit MKD STOR DELE XMKD RNEF RNTO RMD XRMD>
	DenyAll
	</Limit>
</Directory>

<Directory> /home/FTP-shared/upload/>
Umask 022 022
AllowOverwrite on

       <Limit ALL>
		Order Allow,Deny
		AllowUser user1
                AllowUser user2
		Deny ALL
	</Limit>

	<Limit READ RMD DELE>
      	DenyAll
    	</Limit>

    	<Limit STOR CWD MKD>
      	AllowAll
    	</Limit>
</Directory>

Note - user2 will see the download directory but will not be able to enter the directory.

That's all

Source : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=79588

proftpd FTP Server setup on Ubuntu

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