In Anonymous FTP, "ls" Doesn't Display Anything

[Paul Gerke]

I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know what. I have set up a server with bastille to be only an ftp server. Connecting with a regular account everything works fine. When I connect as anonymous or ftp, I am able to establish the connections, but ls doesn't display anything (example of ftp connection followed by ll of the actual directories):
ux37:root / # ftp ux35
Connected to ux35.clark.wa.gov.
220 ux35 FTP server (Revision 1.1 Version wuftpd-2.6.1(PHNE_36065) Mon Jul 9 10:21:14 GMT 2007) ready.
Name (ux35:root): ftp
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /usr/bin/ls.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> cd pub
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /usr/bin/ls.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> cd GIS
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /usr/bin/ls.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> bye
221-You have transferred 0 bytes in 0 files.
221-Total traffic for this session was 971 bytes in 3 transfers.
221-Thank you for using the FTP service on ux35.
221 Goodbye.
ux37:root / # ssh ux35
...
ux35:root / # cd ~ftp
ux35:root /homepw/ftpanon # ll . pub pub/GIS

.:
total 2
-r-------- 1 root sys 0 Aug 4 10:46 .forward
-r-------- 1 root sys 0 Aug 4 10:46 .rhosts
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ftp ftpanon 0 Aug 4 16:45 1.pkg
drwxrwxrwx 2 ftp ftpanon 96 Aug 4 16:46 2.pkg
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root sys 96 Aug 4 10:34 bin
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root sys 96 Aug 4 10:38 etc
dr-xr-xr-x 7 root ftpanon 1024 Aug 4 11:12 pub

pub:
total 10
drwxrwxr-x 3 pwanon pwanon 1024 Jul 25 08:16 2007 Standard Details Manual
drwxrwxr-x 5 pwanon pwanon 1024 Jul 25 08:17 CLEAN WATER PROJECTS
drwxr-xr-x 9 gis gispub 1024 Aug 4 10:37 GIS
drwxrwxr-x 8 pwanon pwanon 1024 Jul 17 09:16 PARKS PROJECTS
drwxrwxr-x 19 pwanon pwanon 1024 Apr 18 09:48 ROAD PROJECTS

pub/GIS:
total 897194
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 90 Jul 28 14:00 23129.tfw
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 116640551 Jul 28 14:00 23129.tif
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 90 Jul 28 14:00 23130.tfw
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 111150503 Jul 28 14:00 23130.tif
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 90 Jul 28 14:00 23131.tfw
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 110761667 Jul 28 14:01 23131.tif
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 90 Jul 28 14:01 23132.tfw
-rw-r--r-x 1 gis gispub 117357311 Jul 28 14:01 23132.tif
------xr-x 1 gis gispub 3439644 Aug 1 10:15 mktvalperc.txt
drwxr-xr-x 3 gis gispub 1024 Jul 23 08:49 packet35576
drwxr-xr-x 3 gis gispub 1024 Jul 23 08:50 packet35582
drwxr-xr-x 3 gis gispub 1024 Jul 24 09:00 packet35591
drwxr-xr-x 3 gis gispub 1024 Jul 24 09:00 packet35592
drwxr-xr-x 3 gis gispub 1024 Jul 24 09:01 packet35601
drwxr-xr-x 3 gis gispub 1024 Jul 25 12:16 packet35620
drwxr-xr-x 3 gis gispub 1024 Jul 28 08:37 packet35624
ux35:root /homepw/ftpanon #


I think I have the account setup correctly in the real /etc/passwd:
ftp:x:112:110:Anonymous FTP Account:/homepw/ftpanon:/usr/bin/false

And I don't think it should matter that I don't have all of the lines in the chroot etc files--I assume that if they aren't there, then ls should show the user or group ID instead.

And inetd.conf has:
ftp stream tcp6 nowait root /usr/lbin/ftpd ftpd -l -u 027

And there is no ftpaccess file.

What am I doing wrong? What more do you need to see to help me?

Thanks,
Paul

[Steven Schweda]

> And I don't think it should matter that I
> don't have all of the lines in the chroot
> etc files--I assume that if they aren't
> there, then ls should show the user or
> group ID instead.

Plausible, but what's in the chroot "bin"
directory? "ls"? I'd guess not. The one
at "/sbin/ls" may be easier to get going
than he usual "/usr/bin/ls". ("ldd" will
show why. But you're welcome to copy over
all the various required run-time libraries
to your chroot "usr/lib" directory, if you
need some feature of the regular one.)

Additional effort of this sort will be needed
if you'd like to use that gzip|tar-on-the-fly
stuff, as ftpd will be looking for those
programs, too.

Have you tried fetching a known-to-exist
file? If the FTP server is configured
properly otherwise, that should work even if
"ls" doesn't.

[Steven Schweda]

Around here, "man ftpd" does seem to cover
this:

[...]
The anonymous FTP directory should be set up as follows:
[...]

Of course, if you stopped reading at
"passwd", you may have missed the important
stuff.

Free advice:

If you make a writable directory for uploads,
don't call it "incoming" or "upload", which
are the names all the exploit scripts will
try.

[Paul Gerke]

Thanks Steven,
I appreciate the response. Sorry about forgetting to report on the bin directory. I copied ls out of /sbin and it has to be there in order not to get an error message in response. Here is the ll of bin:

ux35:root /homepw/ftpanon # ll bin
total 1450
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root sys 741556 Aug 4 16:23 ls
ux35:root /homepw/ftpanon #

Since I could cd into subdirectories i assumed that I could get a file, but to check I copied the copyright file into the pub directory and was able to get it:

ux35:root /homepw/ftpanon/pub # cp -p /etc/copyright .
ux35:root /homepw/ftpanon/pub # ll
total 14
drwxrwxr-x 3 pwanon pwanon 1024 Jul 25 08:16 2007 Standard Details Manual
drwxrwxr-x 5 pwanon pwanon 1024 Jul 25 08:17 CLEAN WATER PROJECTS
drwxr-xr-x 9 gis gispub 1024 Aug 4 10:37 GIS
drwxrwxr-x 8 pwanon pwanon 1024 Jul 17 09:16 PARKS PROJECTS
drwxrwxr-x 19 pwanon pwanon 1024 Apr 18 09:48 ROAD PROJECTS
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 1152 Sep 8 2004 copyright
ux35:root /homepw/ftpanon/pub #


ux37:root / # ftp ux35
Connected to ux35.clark.wa.gov.
220 ux35 FTP server (Revision 1.1 Version wuftpd-2.6.1(PHNE_36065) Mon Jul 9 10:21:14 GMT 2007) ready.
Name (ux35:root): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> cd pub
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /usr/bin/ls.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> get copyright
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for copyright (1152 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
1152 bytes received in 0.00 seconds (3358.21 Kbytes/s)
ftp> bye
221-You have transferred 1152 bytes in 1 files.
221-Total traffic for this session was 1878 bytes in 2 transfers.
221-Thank you for using the FTP service on ux35.
221 Goodbye.


That's what has me confused. I think I followed all of the steps, even after the passwd stuff, but it doesn't display even though everything else works.

[Paul Gerke]

And I see that I neglected to thank you for the advice on upload directories. So far our anonymous ftp account only has to be read-only. I am trying hard to keep it that way to avoid some of those exploit issues.

Paul

[Steven Schweda · Accepted solution]

> Here is the ll of bin:
> [...]

Ah. At least one of us seems to be living in
the past, where "/bin/ls" was popular. Note
the message:

> 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /usr/bin/ls.

What happens if you move your (bulky,
IA64-sized) "ls" to the chroot "usr/bin"
directory? Around here, that makes a world
of difference. (I hadn't set up anonymous
FTP on my zx2000 before, but, as I always
say, "What could go wrong?".)

[Paul Gerke]

Thank you Steven,
For pointing out what ftpd had been telling me all along. As soon as I created the usr directory and moved bin into it everything worked!

Paul