Install and setup vsFTP on Ubuntu

1. Install packages

apt-get install vsftpd libpam-pwdfile

If you’re using Ubuntu 12.04, please check Issue 2 below.

2. Edit vsFTP permission config file

Edit /etc/pam.d/vsftpd, content is:

@include common-session
auth required pam_pwdfile.so pwdfile /etc/ftpd.passwd
account required pam_permit.so

3. Create FTP users

Create password file for new user

touch /etc/ftpd.passwd
htpasswd -bd /etc/ftpd.passwd hydra hydra123!

You can add more users by using...

htpasswd /etc/ftpd.passwd admin 1234

Create home folder for FTP users

mkdir /var/ftp/hydra
chown vsftpuser:nogroup /var/ftp/hydra
chmod -w /var/ftp/hydra

4. Create vsFTP user

Create system user for vsFTP service

useradd --home /home/vsftpuser --gid nogroup -m --shell /bin/false vsftpuser

5. Edit config file

Edit /etc/vsftpd.conf

anonymous_enable=NOlocal_enable=YESwrite_enable=YESlocal_umask=022nopriv_user=vsftpdvirtual_use_local_privs=YESguest_enable=YESuser_sub_token=$USERlocal_root=/var/ftp/$USERchroot_local_user=YEShide_ids=YESguest_username=vsftpuserallow_writeable_chroot=YES

Restart service

/etc/init.d/vsftpd restart

Issues

Issue 1. 421 OOPS

Root cause:

Passwd file cannot be recognized by pam_pwdfile.so

Solution:

Use htpasswd -bd instead of htpasswd -c

Issue 2. 500 OOPS: vsftpd: refusing to run with writable root inside chroot()

You need to add this line into /etc/vsftpd.conf

allow_writeable_chroot=YES

But unfortunately, vsftpd 2.3.5 on Ubuntu 12.04 doesn’t support this feature. Server will be no response if you add writable chroot. There is a temp solution, to backport it from vsftp 3 into 2.3.5 by using these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thefrontiergroup/vsftpd
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vsftpd

Or, download deb file from: https://launchpad.net/~thefrontiergroup/+archive/vsftpd/+packages

For example:

wget https://launchpad.net/~thefrontiergroup/+archive/vsftpd/+files/vsftpd_2.3.5-1ubuntu2ppa1_amd64.debsudo dpkg -i vsftpd_2.3.5-1ubuntu2ppa1_amd64.deb