Fast and Secure FTP Server with Vsftpd in Debian

vsftpd is a GPL licensed FTP server for UNIX systems, including Linux. It is secure and extremely fast. It is stable. Don’t take my word for it, though. Below, we will see evidence supporting all three assertions. We will also see a list of a few important sites which are happily using vsftpd. This demonstrates vsftpd is a mature and trusted solution.vsftpd is an FTP server, or daemon. The “vs” stands for Very Secure.

vsftpd server installation in debian

#apt-get install vsftpd

that’s it this will complete the installation.

vsftpd configuration file

vsftpd configuration file is located at /etc/vsftpd.conf.This is the main configuration file where you need to configure all the required options.

I am going to give the some of the configuration options as follows.This is only example configuration options only.

ftpd_banner

This option is the name of a file containing text to display when someone connects to the server

ftpd_banner=example.com FTP server

listen

If enabled, vsftpd will run in standalone mode. This means that vsftpd must not be run from an inetd of some kind. Instead, the vsftpd executable is run once directly. vsftpd itself will then take care of listening for and handling incoming connections.

listen=YES

xferlog_enable

If enabled, a log file will be maintained detailling uploads and downloads. By default, this file will be placed at /var/log/vsftpd.log, but this location may be overridden using the configuration setting vsftpd_log_file.

xferlog_enable=YES

connect_from_port_20

This controls whether PORT style data connections use port 20 (ftp-data) on the server machine. For security reasons, some clients may insist that this is the case. Conversely, disabling this option enables vsftpd to run with slightly less privilege.

connect_from_port_20=YES

hide_ids

If enabled, all user and group information in directory listings will be displayed as “ftp”.

hide_ids=YES

max_clients

If vsftpd is in standalone mode, this is the maximum number of clients which may be connected. Any additional clients connecting will get an error message.

max_clients=20

max_per_ip

If vsftpd is in standalone mode, this is the maximum number of clients which may be connected from the same source internet address. A client will get an error message if they go over this limit.

max_per_ip=1

anon_root

This option represents a directory which vsftpd will try to change into after an anonymous login. Failure is silently ignored.

anon_root=/home/ftp

anonymous_enable

Controls whether anonymous logins are permitted or not. If enabled, both the usernames ftp and anonymous are recognised as anonymous logins.

anonymous_enable=YES (be careful when you enable this option)

write_enable

This controls whether any FTP commands which change the filesystem are allowed or not. These commands are: STOR, DELE, RNFR, RNTO, MKD, RMD, APPE and SITE.

write_enable=YES

anon_upload_enable

If set to YES, anonymous users will be permitted to upload files under certain conditions. For this to work, the option write_enable must be activated, and the anonymous ftp user must have write permission on desired upload locations.

anon_upload_enable=YES (be careful when you enable this option)

anon_mkdir_write_enable

If set to YES, anonymous users will be permitted to create new directories under certain conditions. For this to work, the option write_enable must be activated, and the anonymous ftp user must have write permission on the parent directory.

anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES (be careful when you enable this option)

If you want to know about more configuration options check the man page of vsftpd.conf file. man page of vsftpd.conf file click here

Note:-If are dealing with anonymous options be careful about those options.

After changing these settings you need to restart vsftpd server to take the effect of our new changes

#/etc/init.d/vsftpd restart

vsftpd server Web interface or GUI tool

vsftpd Webmin module

Vsftpd Webmin module is a Webmin module that configures the vsftpd.conf file from your vsftpd FTP server.You can download from here

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8 thoughts on “Fast and Secure FTP Server with Vsftpd in Debian

  1. You asked: Are there any ftp daemons that support SFTP?
    Answer: Not required. If you have an SSHD running, you can sftp to that. Or at least I do…

  2. Is there a way to configure vsftpd as a secure access FTP server?

    I know I can do this with an ssh login using a client such as CoreFTP. However, I desire to do it with something like vsftpd where I can restrict users to their home directories.

    My basic concern is I do not want the user login and password sent in the clear, which is the case when using port 21/20.

    It seems like it is possible, but it is not clear from the documentation how exactly to do this.

    I’m using a Debian Linux based server

  3. I did the same, but after setting up Google 2 factor authentication, i need to type OTP + password with each new upload/download thread being made.. so now I too am looking for a new Secure SSL ftpserver deamon for Linux.

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