topic Re: FTP user home directory problem in Operating System - HP-UX

FTP user home directory problem

prasadb — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:10:53 GMT

Hello experts,

i have some strange problem in one my HP B.11.11 server, i created one user for FTP access only, means he should only make FTP (put and get )the files, but should not telnet to the server, for that i have used /usr/bin/false shell for the user. but the problem is that when he FTP from some other machine, he can login to FTP prompt but doesnot redirect to his home directory as defined by me.

Also, i saw these shells that have been assigned to the various users, like...

/usr/bin/sh
/usr/bin/false
/sbin/sh
/bin/false

so i wonder to know how can i view all the possible shells that can be alloted to the users ? and are there different properties for the shells.

any help is highly appreciated..

thank you

Re: FTP user home directory problem

Fabio Ettore — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:16:13 GMT

Hi,

have you changed HOME directory into /etc/passwd?
Please post the line for your user from /etc/passwd.

Best regards,
Fabio

Re: FTP user home directory problem

Dennis Handly — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:25:55 GMT

>how can I view all the possible shells that can be alloted to the users? and are there different properties for the shells.

All valid shells should be listed in /etc/shells. See shells(4).

Of course you can put anything in /etc/passwd and you may have to update /etc/shells. You can use this to print out the shells:
awk -F: '{print $7}' /etc/passwd | sort -u

>are there different properties for the shells.

No, they are just executables.

Re: FTP user home directory problem

prasadb — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:43:21 GMT

>> line in /etc/passwd

misrpts:KykrJhPqGmHw6,5.VT:167:101:/luc04/misreports:/usr/bin/false

Dear Dennis,

>> if all the shells are same, then the users alloted /usr/bin/sh and /sbin/sh can telnet to the servers, whereas who has /usr/bin/false can't telnet , why such difference is there ?

kindly help me clear the air...

Re: FTP user home directory problem

Deepak Kr — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:12:11 GMT

Provide ftpd line from /etc/inetd.conf

grep -i ftpd /etc/inetd.conf

Are you trying to use chroot here..

if yes modify user line in /etc/passwd with following:

misrpts:KykrJhPqGmHw6,5.VT:167:101:/luc04/misreports/./:/usr/bin/false

appended /./ in home dir of user.
this needs to modify /etc/ftpaccess file also.

Re: FTP user home directory problem

TTr — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:48:49 GMT

> are there different properties for the shells
You can not restrict where the users can navigate in the server using the shell properties (I think that's what you are asking)
> he can login to FTP prompt but doesnot redirect to his home directory as defined by me
Where does he end up? If there is a problem with the home directory, usually a message is displayed right after the password is typed. Do you get such a message? Are there any other messages/errors in /var/admsyslog/syslog.log regarding the ftp session?

Re: FTP user home directory problem

Dennis Handly — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:56:04 GMT

>if all the shells are same, then the users alloted /usr/bin/sh and /sbin/sh can telnet to the servers, whereas who has /usr/bin/false can't telnet, why such difference is there?

Well, after you execute the shell, it depends what it does. Obviously false(1) doesn't do anything and then returns an error. Whether or not you can detect the fact that it entered the "shell" and exited or never got there, I don't know.

If your shell isn't in /etc/shells, you can't ftp.

Re: FTP user home directory problem

prasadb — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:41:42 GMT

hello all,

i was trying "pwd" at the FTP prompt, it was showing / , but in fact when i created one file, and checked it on the serverm, the file was created, so the problem is solved now.