hi all,
I have configured VSFTP in "local user" mode. It works fine. Everyone with user name and passwd can login ..and it goes ok. Now I want to enable anonymous users to login (to download some stuff). It is advisable to run both in the same machine? If so how should I do it?

hi pradi,

look for this in your vsftpd.conf file. It may be hashed at as default, I'm unsure.

anonymous_enable=YES

But either way, it is in the vsftpd.conf file. Look for it and unhash it if you need to. Once you do this, you should be able to restart the service and have anon access to the ftp. (either anonymous or ftp as user names by default I believe). If you want anon users to be able to upload you will have to also look for the anon upload section.

It's all in the man page. Type man vsftpd.conf and you have 99% of the info you'll need to get it all going fine for yourself.

Good luck.

>Craig

Hi craig,
Thanks for your info. I have tried that already. but when I try to login using "ftp" or "anonymous" it says that the user doesn't exists. I think it checks the passwd file for "ftp" or "anonymous" and reports this error. Does it?

Hi.

I just installed vsftpd onto my machine and set it up to allow anonymous users to connect and upload. It is going to be long, but I'll paste my whole vsftpd.conf file below for you to have a look at. Also.... you might wanna do a couple of things first.

service iptables stop (turn off your firewall, just for testing purposes)

look in your /etc/vsftpd.ftpusers and /etc/vsftpd.user_list (make sure these both DON'T have ftp or anonymous in the list).

Also. I DON'T have ftp or anonymous as local users that I have added on my machine.

OK anyway.... here is the file for ya... Good luck and let me know how you go.

**************************************************************************
# Example config file /etc/vsftpd.conf
#
# The default compiled in settings are fairly paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
# Please see vsftpd.conf.5 for all compiled in defaults.
#
# READ THIS: This example file is NOT an exhaustive list of vsftpd options.
# Please read the vsftpd.conf.5 manual page to get a full idea of vsftpd's
# capabilities.
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=YES
#
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
local_umask=022
#
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
anon_upload_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
#
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES
#
# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
xferlog_enable=YES
#
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
#

# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
#chown_uploads=YES
#chown_username=whoever
#
# You may override where the log file goes if you like. The default is shown
# below.
#xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log
#
# If you want, you can have your log file in standard ftpd xferlog format
xferlog_std_format=YES
#
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
#
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
#
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
#
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
#
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that turning on ascii_download_enable enables malicious remote parties
# to consume your I/O resources, by issuing the command "SIZE /big/file" in
# ASCII mode.
# These ASCII options are split into upload and download because you may wish
# to enable ASCII uploads (to prevent uploaded scripts etc. from breaking),
# without the DoS risk of SIZE and ASCII downloads. ASCII mangling should be
# on the client anyway..
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
#
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
#ftpd_banner=Welcome to blah FTP service.
#
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd.banned_emails
#
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
#chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
#
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES

pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
#enable for standalone mode
listen=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES
***********************************************************

make sure you have userlist_enable=YES like I have in my file above. If your file is like mine above (cut and paste it to yours if you wish) and you DON'T have ftp or anonymous in your /etc/vsftpd.ftpusers and /etc/vsftpd.user_list files. You should be good.

Good luck.

>Craig