topic Re: anon ftp issue in Operating System - HP-UX

anon ftp issue

navin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:42:46 GMT

I'm trying to connect to a hp server as anon ftp - access is fine .but not able to upload any file ..as the below error message - anu idea - Thanks

257 "/" is current directory.
ftp> put ypservers
200 PORT command successful.
553 ypse: Permission denied on server. (Upload)
ftp> o

Re: anon ftp issue

Autocross.US — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:51:36 GMT

Looks like you don't have write access to the directory you are trying to upload to.

Re: anon ftp issue

OldSchool — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:55:27 GMT

if you followed the steps in "man ftpd", then "cd pub" before you put the file and see what happens.

the base directory is not writeable (and shouldn't be), as explained in the man pages

Re: anon ftp issue

navin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:45:37 GMT

i did cd pub ..but still the same error
thanks

Re: anon ftp issue

Tingli — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:36:07 GMT

There could be two reasons.

1. There is already a same file exists there with permission not available to you.

2. You need to add the ftp's shell name to file /etc/shells, which might need to be created by you as 644 owned by root:sys.

Re: anon ftp issue

Steven Schweda — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:06:20 GMT

> [...] a hp server [...]

This is not a useful description of the
system or its operating system. "uname -a"?
(Or of its FTP server.)

Knowing nothing, I'd guess that your FTP
server is affected by a configuration file,
like /etc/ftpd/ftpaccess. "man ftpd"?

What's in _your_ ftpaccess file?

Conventionally, anonymous FTP servers do not
allow anyone on the planet to upload files
to them. "man ftpaccess", look for "upload"?

> Looks like you don't have write access to
> the directory you are trying to upload to.

It probably does look like that, but an
anonymous FTP user is actually anonymous, so
the ordinary (user/group-based) permissions
do not apply in the usual way in this case.

> There could be two reasons.

There could be many other reasons, too, many
of which are more likely than these two.

Re: anon ftp issue

Tingli — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:58:35 GMT

If it the reason 2 as I said, it will be stated in syslog.log

Re: anon ftp issue

Steven Schweda — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:53:59 GMT

> If it the reason 2 as I said, it will be
> stated in syslog.log

If it were the reason 2 as you said, then how
would the user get logged in in the first
place?

Reason 1 as you said is about as likely as
reason 2. Have you ever observed this error
message as the result of trying to overwrite
an existing file? (I haven't.)

A Google search for the error message
(quoted) should find several discussions of
the actual problem.

It might also be useful to show an "ls -l"
report for the "~ftp" directory.

> 257 "/" is current directory.
> ftp> put ypservers

Also, it's unusual to allow uploads to the
anonymous FTP "/" directory. ("/incoming" is
more common. "/incoming" is also one of the
first places which common FTP server attacks
will try, so I would avoid that name.)

Re: anon ftp issue

Steven Schweda — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:19:57 GMT

> Reason 1 as you said is about as likely as
> reason 2. Have you ever observed this error
> message as the result of trying to overwrite
> an existing file? (I haven't.)

In fact, if you have an (enabled) ftpaccess
file, you _can_ get this one:

553 : Permission denied. (Overwrite)

One way (perhaps the only way) to get this
one:

553 : Permission denied. (Upload)

is to have an (enabled) ftpaccess file, but
not to have an appropriate "upload" directive
in it for the destination directory.
(Without an (enabled) ftpaccess file, the
"(Upload)" part of that message tends to be
missing, so I'd guess that we have one.)

Also interesting:
grep '^ftp' /etc/inetd.conf

"-a" can be useful. ("man ftpd", again.)
But, as I said, the messages suggest that
we're using an ftpaccess file, so I wouldn't
expect that to be the problem here.

Without an (enabled) ftpaccess file,
overwrites are permitted, and a permission
(or owner) problem on the destination
directory gives an error message without the
"(Upload)", like:

553 : Permission denied.

But, hey. Show me some evidence instead of
pontificating stuff which I can't believe,
and you might persuade me that you know more
than you seem to.