proFTPd won't accept logins

Harry Hunt · 08-17-2005, 01:44 PM

Hi everybody!
I'm a Linux noob, so I'm sorry if this questions is in any way stupid or if I'm doing something horribly wrong.

I have set-up a Linux (Debian 3.0) machine, basically as a learning experience (since I have no Linux background whatsoever) and to have a realistic testing environment for my websites. So I installed Apache, MySQL and PHP and it all worked nicely. I then installed proFTPd and it worked very nicely, too. But then I did an "apt-get upgrade" and all of a sudden, it no longer accepts any of my logins. I checked the config file and even replaced it with a backup copy but that didn't help either.

Here's what I get when I telnet it (I did this on the Linux box via SSH)

Code:

Status:	Connecting to localhost...
Status:	Connected with localhost. Waiting for welcome message...
Response:	220 ProFTPD 1.2.10 Server (localhost) [127.0.0.1]
Command:	USER ftptest
Response:	331 Password required for ftptest.
Command:	PASS ********
Response:	530 Login incorrect.

To be absolutely sure that the login was correct, I created a new user with a simple password but when I tried to login with that user I got the same message (The login works for SSH, so it has to be correct).

Here's my proftpd.conf

Code:

ServerName                      "testserver"
ServerType                      standalone
DeferWelcome                    off

MultilineRFC2228                on
DefaultServer                   on
ShowSymlinks                    on

TimeoutNoTransfer               600
TimeoutStalled                  600
TimeoutIdle                     1200

DisplayLogin                    welcome.msg
DisplayFirstChdir               .message
ListOptions                     "-l"

DenyFilter                      \*.*/

MaxInstances                    30

User                            ftpsecure
Group                           ftpusers

Umask                           022  022

AllowOverwrite                  on

Port                            21

I'm really confused and out of ideas so if anybody can give me a hint, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance!

P.S.: I wasn't quite sure where to post this so if this is in the wrong forum, I'm sorry.

plapla · 08-17-2005, 02:17 PM

Are you sure the shell of your users are included in /etc/shells ?
ProFTPD, as most FTP servers, won't accept a user login if its shell is not in this list of trusted shells.

Harry Hunt · 08-17-2005, 02:27 PM

awesome! That's it. Thanks a million!

plapla · 08-17-2005, 03:59 PM

BTW, a security tip :
If you need to have users who only have FTP access then set their shell to /bin/false and add it to the /etc/shells.
Thus they would not be able to log into your server via any method.
This is also recommended that you make sure the users are chrooted in their home dir and cannot access any other location on your server.

ProFTPD does a good job at it, much easier to set up than wu-ftpd for example.
Only thing you have to do is to add the
DefaultRoot ~
line in your proftpd.conf

Harry Hunt · 08-18-2005, 12:35 AM

Thanks for the tips. I'll definetely set it up that way.