am running Mandrake 10.1 with ProFTP 1.2.10 installed. I have one user (myself) + root for the machine and I want to have a generic username and password for the ftp server. Like a username of "friends" and some random password. I don't want to have anonymous access allowed. My problem is that when I created the system user "friends" it allows them to ftp into my system, but it also allows them to login and ssh in. I DON"T LIKE THAT.

I've heard that in the /etc/passwd file if you change the terminal from /bin/bash to /usr/bin/false it will disallow logging in. However, that disables ftp access also. Then I've heard that if you change the x to a * it will disallow it. Once again it disallows ftp also.

Is there a way to create a user that has absolutely no system privilages but can access the ftp server?

Simplest way is to make their shell (not a terminal) /bin/false and add that also to your /etc/shells file.. which will still allow them ftp access but not a valid shell thru ssh, etc... you were on the right track, just left out the /etc/shells bit...

No, because whenever I change the shell, it won't let me ftp in for some reason. I can't ssh in either but I'd like to be able to ftp in. I found something else, in /etc/ssh/denyusers I think I can deny some users ssh access. That's a temporary fix.

How can I make a user specifically for ProFTP? For example, I could have a set of users for ftp that the system didn't even know existed.

Dude, did you add the shell for the user you created in /etc/shells file? Trust me, it works, done it a million times..

Edit your /etc/passwd file:

vi /etc/passwd
go into insert mode with an "i"
change user1's shell to /bin/false
esc < to go into command mode
:wq! < to save and quit

vi /etc/shells
go into insert mode like above
add /bin/false at the end of the file
esc < to go into command mode
:wq! < to save and quit

Test user by ftp'ing into server.. its that easy. You don't have to use vi to edit your files but those are the steps if your comfortable with vi.

I figured it out. I had added the user to /etc/ssh/denyusers and for some reason it was denying ftp access also. I added the things that you said and removed the user from /etc/ssh/denyusers and it works fine. However, when I login to X it still gives me the option to select that user which I don't want. Like I said I don't want it anywhere other than the ftp server. Any way to alter that?