Introduction
vsftpd stands for Very Secure FTP Daemon. It’s a lightweight FTP server. This short tutorial explains how to install vsftpd on Debian or Ubuntu. The commands in this tutorial require root privileges.
Step 1: Installation
Run the following command to install vsftpd:
apt-get install vsftpd
Step 2: Configuration
Open up the configuration file using your text editor of choice. This example uses vim.
vim /etc/vsftpd.conf
vsftpd allows anonymous users to access the server by default. This feature could be considered a security vulnerability. We will disable anonymous login by changing the following line:
anonymous_enable=NO
To allow local user login, uncomment the following line:
local_enable=YES
To enable uploading, uncomment the following line:
write_enable=YES
Save the file and close your text editor. Then, start vsftpd as a daemon:
service vsftpd start
At this point, you can log in your ftp server from your local computer.
Extras
If you want to prevent all local users from leaving their home directory, you need to uncomment this line from /etc/vsftpd.conf:
chroot_local_user=YES
As of vsftpd 2.3.5, the chroot directory must not be writable. You can change the permissions of this folder with the following command:
chmod a-w /home/user
Remember to restart the vsftpd daemon after editing vsftpd.conf.
service vsftpd restart