linux guide

Setting up FTP server is a standard method for sharing files over the internet.
Two FTP server packages are provided with Linux RedHat 8 distribution, - the Washington
University FTPD (WUFTPD) and the Very Secure FTPD (VSFTPD).
Among the two, VSFTPD is considered to be better for high-volume FTP servers.
Access to the FTP server relies on a login process in the particular FTP server. Users with
their accounts on the system most likely have access to the greater part of the file system
after been authenticated comparing to ‘Anonymous’ user.
We will only concentrate to the VSFTPD configuration.
Setting up VSFTPD:
Start the VSFTPD FTP Server: Redhat 8
First of all check whether WUFTPD is running or not. To stop WUFTPD you must modify
the /etc/xinetd.d/wu-ftpd file. Replace the seeting
disable = no with disable = yes.
Edit the /etc/xinetd.d/vsftpd file by replacing the setting
disable = yes with disable = no
Restart the xinetd server by running the following command –
service xinetd restart or
/etc/init.d/xinetd restart
At this point, by default, anonymous users are given ‘read-only’ access to files and
subdirectories in /var/ftp.
Authenticated local users get access to their respective home directories.
With RHEL 3 or RHEL 4 starting ftp service is really simple. All you have to do is
exetcute the following command - service vsftpd restart .
To Start the ftp service in booting time, execute chkconfig vsftpd on
The vsftp ftp service configuration file is vsftpd.conf In case of Redhat 8, you will find
this file in /etc/ folder. In RHEL 3/4 you will find the file in /etc/vsftpd/ directory.
The vsftpd.conf file:
Configuration for the anonymous users:
By default, the anonymous users have read-only access to /var/ftp directory. The
default location for anonymous users can be changed by keeping the following directive in
the vsftpd.conf file – anon_root=/var/new .
Please be noted, whenever you modify the vsftpd.conf file, you need to restart the ftp service.
The anonymous_enable=YES option in vsftpd.conf file lets the anonymous users to access
the /var/ftp directory. It is the default setting.
If you want to disable anonymous access modify the
anonymous_enable=YES to anonymous_enable=NO
We can allow anonymous users to upload files using –
anon_upload_enable=YES option, provided that the directory or directories, where the
filess will be uploaded, are exist with write permission. For the security reason it is
always better to create a directory in /var/ftp with 777 permission – where the
anonymous users will upload their files.
Create a directory, say, public
mkdir /var/ftp/public
Set the permission
chmod 777 –R /var/ftp/public
We must keep in mind, ownership will be granted to ftp user for the files uploaded by
anonymous users. So, it is understandable, anonymous users get read-only access to the uploaded files.
If you want to allow the anonymous users to rename or delete the files in
/var/ftp/public directory, place the following option in the vsftpd.conf file –
anon_other_write_enable=YES
If you want to allow the anonymous users to create their own directory in the
/var/ftp/public directory, place the following option in the vsftpd.conf file –
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
If you want to configure the FTP server so that a particular user, say Linuxuser, will be
granted the ownership of the files uploaded by the anonymous users, place the following
options in the vsftpd.conf file –
chown_uploads=YES
chown_username=Linuxuser
Do not forget to restart ftp service –
service vsftpd restart

Labels: anonymous, configuration, FTP, Linux, server, unix, user, vsftp