VSFTPD installation steps

#### VSFTPD Installation Steps ####

1) Install vsftpd package.
    
    sudo apt-get install vsftpd

2) Open up the configuration file.
 
    vim /etc/vsftpd.conf
    
3) Configure VSFTPD configuration file.

The biggest change you need to make is to switch the Anonymous_enable from YES to NO: 
    
    anonymous_enable=NO
    
Prior to this change, vsftpd allowed anonymous, unidentified users to access the server's files. This is useful if you are seeking to distribute information widely, but may be considered a serious security issue in most other cases.

After that, uncomment the local_enable option, changing it to yes and, additionally, allow the user to write to the directory. 

    local_enable=YES
    .
    .
    write_enable=YES
    
Finish up by uncommenting command to chroot_local_user. When this line is set to Yes, all the local users will be jailed within their chroot and will be denied access to any other part of the server. 

    chroot_local_user=YES
    
Save and Exit that file. Because of a recent vsftpd upgrade, vsftpd is "refusing to run with writable root inside chroot". A handy way to address this issue to is to take the following steps:

The configuration file is look like below.

    	# 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.
		#
		#
		# Run standalone?  vsftpd can run either from an inetd or as a standalone
		# daemon started from an initscript.
		listen=YES
		#
		# Run standalone with IPv6?
		# Like the listen parameter, except vsftpd will listen on an IPv6 socket
		# instead of an IPv4 one. This parameter and the listen parameter are mutually
		# exclusive.
		#listen_ipv6=YES
		#
		# Allow anonymous FTP? (Disabled by default)
		anonymous_enable=NO
		#
		# 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=011
		#
		# 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
		#
		# If enabled, vsftpd will display directory listings with the time
		# in  your  local  time  zone.  The default is to display GMT. The
		# times returned by the MDTM FTP command are also affected by this
		# option.
		use_localtime=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.
		# Note that the default log file location is /var/log/xferlog in this case.
		#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 on some FTP servers, ASCII support allows a denial of service
		# attack (DoS) via the command "SIZE /big/file" in ASCII mode. vsftpd
		# predicted this attack and has always been safe, reporting the size of the
		# raw file.
		# ASCII mangling is a horrible feature of the protocol.
		#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 restrict local users to their home directories.  See the FAQ for
		# the possible risks in this before using chroot_local_user or
		# chroot_list_enable below.
		#chroot_local_user=YES
		#
		# 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().
		# (Warning! chroot'ing can be very dangerous. If using chroot, make sure that
		# the user does not have write access to the top level directory within the
		# chroot)
		chroot_local_user=YES
		#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
		#
		# Customization
		#
		# Some of vsftpd's settings don't fit the filesystem layout by
		# default.
		#
		# This option should be the name of a directory which is empty.  Also, the
		# directory should not be writable by the ftp user. This directory is used
		# as a secure chroot() jail at times vsftpd does not require filesystem
		# access.
		secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty
		#
		# This string is the name of the PAM service vsftpd will use.
		pam_service_name=vsftpd
		#
		# This option specifies the location of the RSA certificate to use for SSL
		# encrypted connections.
		rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
		# This option specifies the location of the RSA key to use for SSL
		# encrypted connections.
		rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
        
        
4) Now we need to create ftp user with its home directory.
        
    useradd -d {path_of_home_directory} -m {username}
        
5) Cahnge the ownership of the files.

    chown -R username:username {path_of_home_directory}
    
6) Your chroot directory must have 755 permissions. 

    chmod -R 755 {path_of_home_directory}

7) Make all necessary changes within the "files" subdirectory

8) Then, as always, restart:

    sudo service vsftpd restart

Once you have installed the FTP server and configured it to your liking, you can now access it.

You can reach an FTP server in the browser by typing the domain name into the address bar and logging in with the appropriate ID. Keep in mind, you will only be able to access the user's home directory.

    ftp://example.com


Alternatively, you can reach the FTP server on your virtual server through the command line by typing:

    ftp example.com
        
Then you can use the word, "exit" or press "crtl+d" to get out of the FTP shell.