4/26/2021 How to Install, Configure and Secure FTP Server in CentOS 7 - [Comprehensive Guide]

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How to Install, Con gure and Secure FTP Server in

CentOS 7 – [Comprehensive Guide]

Aaron Kili Last Updated: February 15, 2017 FTP 53 Comments

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a traditional and widely used standard tool for
transferring les between a server and clients over a network, especially where no
authentication is necessary (permits anonymous users to connect to a server). We must
understand that FTP is unsecure by default, because it transmits user credentials and
data without encryption.

In this guide, we will describe the steps to install, con gure and secure a FTP server
(VSFTPD stands for “Very Secure FTP Daemon“) in CentOS/RHEL 7 and Fedora 
distributions.
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Note that all the commands in this guide will be run as root, in case you are not
operating the server with the root account, use the sudo command to gain root
privileges.

Step 1: Installing FTP Server

1. Installing vsftpd server is straight forward, just run the following command in the
terminal.

# yum install vsftpd

2. After the installation completes, the service will be disabled at rst, so we need to start
it manually for the time being and enable it to start automatically from the next system
boot as well:

# systemctl start vsftpd

# systemctl enable vsftpd

3. Next, in order to allow access to FTP services from external systems, we have to open
port 21, where the FTP daemons are listening as follows:

# firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=21/tcp

# firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=ftp
# firewall-cmd --reload 

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Step 2: Con guring FTP Server

4. Now we will move over to perform a few con gurations to setup and secure our FTP
server, let us start by making a backup of the original con g le /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf:

# cp /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf.orig

Next, open the con g le above and set the following options with these corresponding
values:

anonymous_enable=NO # disable anonymous login

local_enable=YES # permit local logins
write_enable=YES # enable FTP commands which change the
local_umask=022 # value of umask for file creation for
dirmessage_enable=YES # enable showing of messages when users
xferlog_enable=YES # a log file will be maintained detaili
connect_from_port_20=YES # use port 20 (ftp-data) on the server
xferlog_std_format=YES # keep standard log file format
listen=NO # prevent vsftpd from running in standa
listen_ipv6=YES # vsftpd will listen on an IPv6 socket
pam_service_name=vsftpd # name of the PAM service vsftpd will u
userlist_enable=YES # enable vsftpd to load a list of usern
tcp_wrappers=YES # turn on tcp wrappers

5. Now con gure FTP to allow/deny FTP access to users based on the user list le
/etc/vsftpd.userlist .

By default, users listed in userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.userlist are denied login

access with userlist_deny option set to YES, if userlist_enable=YES.

However, userlist_deny=NO alters the setting, meaning that only users explicitly listed in

userlist_ le=/etc/vsftpd.userlist will be permitted to login.

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userlist_enable=YES # vsftpd will load a list of user

userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.userlist # stores usernames.
userlist_deny=NO

That’s not all, when users login to the FTP server, they are placed in a chroot’ed jail, this
is the local root directory which will act as their home directory for the FTP session only.

Next, we will look at two possible scenarios of how to chroot FTP users to Home
directories (local root) directory for FTP users, as explained below.

6. Now add these two following options to restrict FTP users to their Home directories.

chroot_local_user=YES
allow_writeable_chroot=YES

chroot_local_user=YES means local users will be placed in a chroot jail, their home
directory after login by default settings.

And also by default, vsftpd does not allow the chroot jail directory to be writable for
security reasons, however, we can use the option allow_writeable_chroot=YES to
override this setting.

Save the le and close it.

Securing FTP Server with SELinux

7. Now, let’s set the SELinux boolean below to allow FTP to read les in a user’s home
directory. Note that this was initially done using the the command:

# setsebool -P ftp_home_dir on


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However, the ftp_home_dir directive has been disabled by default as explained in

this bug report: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1097775.

Now we will use semanage command to set SELinux rule to allow FTP to read/write
user’s home directory.

# semanage boolean -m ftpd_full_access --on

At this point, we have to restart vsftpd to effect all the changes we made so far above:

# systemctl restart vsftpd

Step 4: Testing FTP Server

8. Now we will test FTP server by creating a FTP user with useradd command.

# useradd -m -c “Ravi Saive, CEO” -s /bin/bash ravi

# passwd ravi

Afterwards, we have to add the user ravi to the le /etc/vsftpd.userlist using the echo
command as follows:

# echo "ravi" | tee -a /etc/vsftpd.userlist

# cat /etc/vsftpd.userlist

9. Now it’s time to test if our settings above are working correctly. Let’s start by testing
anonymous logins, we can see from the screen shot below that anonymous logins are
not permitted:


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# ftp 192.168.56.10
Connected to 192.168.56.10 (192.168.56.10).
220 Welcome to TecMint.com FTP service.
Name (192.168.56.10:root) : anonymous
530 Permission denied.
Login failed.
ftp>

Test Anonymous FTP Login

10. Let’s also test if a user not listed in the le /etc/vsftpd.userlist will be granted
permission to login, which is not the case as in the screen shot below:

# ftp 192.168.56.10
Connected to 192.168.56.10 (192.168.56.10).
220 Welcome to TecMint.com FTP service.
Name (192.168.56.10:root) : aaronkilik
530 Permission denied.
Login failed.
ftp>


FTP User Login Failed

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11. Now do a nal check if a user listed in the le /etc/vsftpd.userlist, is actually placed in
his/her home directory after login:

# ftp 192.168.56.10
Connected to 192.168.56.10 (192.168.56.10).
220 Welcome to TecMint.com FTP service.
Name (192.168.56.10:root) : ravi
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls

FTP User Login Successful[

Warning: Using allow_writeable_chroot=YES has certain security implications,

especially if the users have upload permission, or shell access. 

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Only activate this option if you exactly know what you are doing. It’s important to note
that these security implications arenot vsftpd speci c, they apply to all FTP daemons
which offer to put local users in chroot jails as well.

Therefore, we will look at a more secure way of setting a different non-writable local root
directory in the next section.

Step 5: Con gure Different FTP User Home

Directories
12. Open the vsftpd con guration le again and start by commenting the unsecure
option below:

#allow_writeable_chroot=YES

Then create the alternative local root directory for the user ( ravi , yours is probably
different) and remove write permissions to all users to this directory:

# mkdir /home/ravi/ftp
# chown
Linux nobody:nobody
Foundation LFCS and /home/ravi/ftp
LFCE Certi cation Preparation Guide - Get This Book
# chmod a-w /home/ravi/ftp

13. Next, create a directory under the local root where the user will store his/her les:

# mkdir /home/ravi/ftp/files
# chown ravi:ravi /home/ravi/ftp/files
# chmod 0700 /home/ravi/ftp/files/

Then add/modify the following options in the vsftpd con g le with these values:


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user_sub_token=$USER # inserts the username in the local root d

local_root=/home/$USER/ftp # defines any users local root directory

Save the le and close it. Once again, let’s restart the service with the new settings:

# systemctl restart vsftpd

14. Now do a nal test again and see that the users local root directory is the FTP
directory we created in his home directory.

# ftp 192.168.56.10
Connected to 192.168.56.10 (192.168.56.10).
220 Welcome to TecMint.com FTP service.
Name (192.168.56.10:root) : ravi
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls

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FTP User Home Directory Login Successful

That’s it! In this article, we described how to install, con gure as well as secure a FTP
server in CentOS 7, use the comment section below to write back to us concerning this
guide/share any useful information about this topic.

Suggested Read: Install ProFTPD Server on RHEL/CentOS 7

In the next article, we will also show you how to secure an FTP server using SSL/TLS
connections in CentOS 7, until then, stay connected to TecMint.

 Vsftpd

 How to Auto Execute How to Secure a FTP Server Using

Commands/Scripts During Reboot or SSL/TLS for Secure File Transfer in CentOS
Startup 7 

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any questions or doubts? do ask for help in the comments section.

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53 thoughts on “How to Install, Con gure and

Secure FTP Server in CentOS 7 – [Comprehensive
Guide]”
← Older Comments

Pedro Stein
June 6, 2020 at 12:37 am


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4/26/2021 How to Install, Configure and Secure FTP Server in CentOS 7 - [Comprehensive Guide]

Hi! I ended up with this and I cannot nd any speci c similar case in Goole. I’m
using CentOS 8 between, is there any difference maybe?

(this is my CLI)

ftp -p [IP of my server]

Connected to [IP of my server]
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.3)
Name ([IP of my server]:pedrostein): pedrosgftp
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer les.
ftp> ls
227 Entering Passive Mode (0,0,0,0,169,250).
ftp: connect: Connection refused
ftp>

Any ideas? :(

Reply

giang
August 31, 2020 at 11:48 am

Have you try to connect to FTP via internet browser?

Reply

Anand 
May 8, 2020 at 9:14 pm

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Wonderful, Thanks!

Reply

Feri
November 30, 2019 at 7:06 pm

Please x mistake
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.userlist : userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd/userlist

Reply

Doug Perez
October 22, 2019 at 6:50 pm

Hi there, thanks for your article, everything was excellent. The only question I
have is how do I do if inside the FTP shared folder need to have 2 folders, one for
read-only and another one for write-read permission. That’s an issue I have.
Thanks

Reply

Aaron Kili
October 23, 2019 at 11:03 am


@Doug
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You can set sub-directory ownership and read-write permissions on an

individual basis within a shared FTP directory. For example, if /home/ravi/ftp:

# chmod 0400 /home/ravi/ftp/read_only_folder

# chmod 0200 /home/ravi/ftp/write_only_folder

You can learn more about Linux permissions from this article:
https://www.tecmint.com/manage-users-and-groups-in-linux/

Reply

Neal
June 14, 2019 at 11:47 pm

Found this incredibly helpful and useful. Understanding chroot is a mine eld, but
you helped me solve my uploading problems simple by following the very precise
instructions. Thanks you

Reply

Aaron Kili
June 18, 2019 at 12:00 am

@Neal

This’s wonderful! We are glad that this worked for you. Thanks for the
feedback.


Reply

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Bile Bakshi
May 15, 2019 at 12:16 am

I am getting 2 error and they are below:

[devops@machine1 ~]$ sudo setsebool -P ftp_home_dir on

Boolean ftp_home_dir is not de ned

[devops@machine1 ~]$ sudo semanage boolean -m ftpd_full_access --on

sudo: semanage: command not found

[devops@machine1 ~]$ sudo ftp 192.168.1.111

sudo: ftp: command not found

[devops@machine1 ~]$ rpm -q ftp # not install package

package ftp is not installed
[devops@machine1 ~]$
[devops@machine1 ~]$ rpm -q vsftpd # if i installed vsftpd then this package d
vsftpd-3.0.2-25.el7.x86_64

So what to do now?

Reply

James Stroud
March 14, 2019 at 11:22 am

In CentOS 7.6 the individual con guration le have changed from:

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/etc/vsftpd.userlist
to:
/etc/vsftpd/userlist

It is not clear in the article (at least to me) that you need to add this line.

userlist_deny=NO

in the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf le in order for it take affect.

Also if you want to ftp as the root user you must comment out or delete the root
line in this le.

vi /etc/vsftpd/ftpusers

For example in my case it now looks like:

[root@centos76 vsftpd]# cat ftpusers

# Users that are not allowed to login via ftp
#root
bin
daemon
adm
lp
sync
shutdown
halt
mail
news
uucp
operator
games
nobody

Reply 

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