Can't upload files to home directory with vsftpd

Evil Otto · 10-05-2006, 04:09 PM

This is a strange one.

I've gotten vsftpd running, and I can log in. However, when I try to put a file to my default directory (/home/$user) I get a "553 Could not create file." from my client. However, when I switch to a subdirectory (/home/$user/directory) I can put a file there. Permissions appear identical on both directories.

Any thoughts?

chimi · 10-05-2006, 04:43 PM

this maybe sounds kinda obvious but ...

can this file already be there??

JAdj · 10-06-2006, 03:08 AM

Can you do ls -la in both directories and paste it here?

Evil Otto · 10-06-2006, 08:20 AM

Code:

<prompt>ls -la
total 3916
drwxr-xr-x  4 zach zach    4096 Oct  3 09:38 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4096 Apr  7 21:46 ..
-rw-------  1 zach zach    6512 Oct  2 18:10 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 zach zach      24 Apr  7 21:46 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 zach zach     191 Apr  7 21:46 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--  1 zach zach     124 Apr  7 21:46 .bashrc
-rw-------  1 zach zach     662 Aug 14 17:55 dead.letter
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  608654 Mar  1  2006 dhcp-3.0.2-34.FC4.i386.rpm
-rwxrw-r--  1 zach zach      72 Oct  2 17:38 gtcdb
-rw-r--r--  1 zach zach     120 Apr  7 21:46 .gtkrc
drwxr-xr-x  8 zach zach    4096 Oct  2 16:56 infobot-0.45.3
-rw-rw-r--  1 zach zach  112346 Aug  4  2004 infobot-0.45.3.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r--  1 zach zach   12709 Apr 14 21:17 infobot-0.45.3.tar.gz?download
-rw-------  1 zach zach     991 Sep 25 23:40 .mysql_history
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 3125693 Apr  7 23:08 pine-4.64-1.i386.rpm
drwxrwxr-x  2 zach zach    4096 Oct  3 09:40 sample
-rw-r--r--  1 zach zach     658 Apr  7 21:46 .zshrc
<prompt>cd sample
<prompt>ls -la
total 28
drwxrwxr-x  2 zach zach 4096 Oct  3 09:40 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 zach zach 4096 Oct  3 09:38 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 zach zach 5515 Oct  3 09:40 dumb.png

Where "zach" is my username, "sample" is a directory I just created, and "dumb.png" is a file I just tried to upload with the WinXP command line FTP client, like so:

Code:

>ftp 192.168.1.254
Connected to 192.168.1.254.
220 (vsFTPd 2.0.3)
User (192.168.1.254:(none)): zach
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
ftp> put dumb.png
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
553 Could not create file.
ftp> cd sample
250 Directory successfully changed.
ftp> put dumb.png
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Ok to send data.
226 File receive OK.
ftp: 5515 bytes sent in 0.00Seconds 5515000.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.

Hope this is what you're looking for.

Evil Otto · 10-07-2006, 05:42 PM

The culprit was SELinux. Once I disabled that all was fine. Replying here so if someone else has the same problem they'll see a possible solution.

I'll have to go and reconfigure it later so I can turn it back on. Not a hugely security-sensitive environment, but I should be running it all the same.

jlgreer1 · 10-08-2006, 10:21 AM

Please post the SELinux configuration here after it is satisfactory.

Thank you,
fos....

Justin.Buser · 12-07-2010, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evil Otto

This is a strange one.

I've gotten vsftpd running, and I can log in. However, when I try to put a file to my default directory (/home/$user) I get a "553 Could not create file." from my client. However, when I switch to a subdirectory (/home/$user/directory) I can put a file there. Permissions appear identical on both directories.

Any thoughts?

This is most likely an SELINUX issue, you can either disable selinux (not recommended in a production environment) or execute the following command as root:
setsebool -P ftp_home_dir=1

That will allow ftp users to write to their home dirs.