Virtual Web Server: Part 6 - ProFTPd Setup
The Blog of Tom Webster
Now that you have most of what you need to run some simple sites, you
need a way to open it up to people, allow them to upload their own files.
This is where ProFTPd comes in. First, install
it with apt-get install proftpd. There are some configuration options
as you set it up. Right now, select standalone when the installer asks
you whether to run as a service or standalone server.
Now we have to create a user who will manage our domain. I usually set
this name to the domain name itself without the ending (so example
would manage www.example.com). Create a new user with adduser example
and set a good, complex password. Debian will ask you for more details,
but you don't need to fill these out. This creates a new user and home
directory. We actually don't want our user to use /home/example as
their home directory, we want them to be jailed to the web directory.
Open up /etc/passwd in your text editor of choice, we're going to make
some changes to this new user. We need to set a new home directory, and
more imporantly, a new shell, we don't want the user logging on via SSH,
they don't need that kind of access. Check out the example below for
configuration details.
bob:x:0:0:root:/home/bob:/bin/bash
# The above user can log in interactively, and their home folder is in the usual location
alice:x:1000:1000:,,,:/var/www/www.example.com:/bin/false
# The above user can't log in interactively, and their home folder is set to their public website folder.
After you set up your user like alice in the example above, we need to
change the permissions on our new user's home directory. Use this command
to set the owner and group of the folder to your new user: chown -R
example:example /var/www/www.example.com/. Now we're ready to set some
ProFTPd configuration options. Open up /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf and
copy my configuration file below.
#
# /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf -- This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file.
# To really apply changes reload proftpd after modifications.
#
# Includes DSO modules
Include /etc/proftpd/modules.conf
# Set off to disable IPv6 support which is annoying on IPv4 only boxes.
UseIPv6 on
# If set on you can experience a longer connection delay in many cases.
IdentLookups off
ServerName "Debian"
ServerType standalone
DeferWelcome off
MultilineRFC2228 on
DefaultServer on
ShowSymlinks on
TimeoutNoTransfer 600
TimeoutStalled 600
TimeoutIdle 1200
DisplayLogin welcome.msg
DisplayChdir .message true
ListOptions "-l"
DenyFilter \*.*/
# Use this to jail all users in their homes
DefaultRoot ~
# Users require a valid shell listed in /etc/shells to login.
# Use this directive to release that constrain.
RequireValidShell off
# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port 21
# In some cases you have to specify passive ports range to by-pass
# firewall limitations. Ephemeral ports can be used for that, but
# feel free to use a more narrow range.
# PassivePorts 49152 65534
# If your host was NATted, this option is useful in order to
# allow passive tranfers to work. You have to use your public
# address and opening the passive ports used on your firewall as well.
# MasqueradeAddress 1.2.3.4
# This is useful for masquerading address with dynamic IPs:
# refresh any configured MasqueradeAddress directives every 8 hours
<IfModule mod_dynmasq.c>
# DynMasqRefresh 28800
</IfModule>
# 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 30
# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User proftpd
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
# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
AllowOverwrite on
# Uncomment this if you are using NIS or LDAP via NSS to retrieve passwords:
# PersistentPasswd off
# This is required to use both PAM-based authentication and local passwords
# AuthOrder mod_auth_pam.c* mod_auth_unix.c
# Be warned: use of this directive impacts CPU average load!
# Uncomment this if you like to see progress and transfer rate with ftpwho
# in downloads. That is not needed for uploads rates.
#
# UseSendFile off
TransferLog /var/log/proftpd/xferlog
SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log
<IfModule mod_quotatab.c>
QuotaEngine off
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_ratio.c>
Ratios off
</IfModule>
# Delay engine reduces impact of the so-called Timing Attack described in
# http://security.lss.hr/index.php?page=details&ID=LSS-2004-10-02
# It is on by default.
<IfModule mod_delay.c>
DelayEngine on
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_ctrls.c>
ControlsEngine off
ControlsMaxClients 2
ControlsLog /var/log/proftpd/controls.log
ControlsInterval 5
ControlsSocket /var/run/proftpd/proftpd.sock
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_ctrls_admin.c>
AdminControlsEngine off
</IfModule>
#
# Alternative authentication frameworks
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/ldap.conf
#Include /etc/proftpd/sql.conf
#
# This is used for FTPS connections
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/tls.conf
#
# Useful to keep VirtualHost/VirtualRoot directives separated
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/virtuals.con
# A basic anonymous configuration, no upload directories.
# <Anonymous ~ftp>
# User ftp
# Group nogroup
# # We want clients to be able to login with "anonymous" as well as "ftp"
# UserAlias anonymous ftp
# # Cosmetic changes, all files belongs to ftp user
# DirFakeUser on ftp
# DirFakeGroup on ftp
#
# RequireValidShell off
#
# # Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins
# MaxClients 10
#
# # We want 'welcome.msg' displayed at login, and '.message' displayed
# # in each newly chdired directory.
# DisplayLogin welcome.msg
# DisplayChdir .message
#
# # Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot
# <Directory *>
# <Limit WRITE>
# DenyAll
# </Limit>
# </Directory>
#
# # Uncomment this if you're brave.
# # <Directory incoming>
# # # Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
# # # (second parm) from being group and world writable.
# # Umask 022 022
# # <Limit READ WRITE>
# # DenyAll
# # </Limit>
# # <Limit STOR>
# # AllowAll
# # </Limit>
# # </Directory>
#
# </Anonymous>
This configuration jails users in their home directories, which we've
just set to be the public web directory. You do need to run service
proftpd restart to apply the configuration changes.
Have your users log in with the following details (changed to fit your domain/username of course):
Host: www.example.com
Port: 21
Username: example
Password: # the password you set for this user #
Now your users can push and pull files to set up their websites.
Other posts in this series: