wu-ftpd and vsftpd: Login incorrect

[José Enrique González]

Hi:

Im trying to test and alternative to native wu-ftpd included in HP-UX 11.23. My box is on trusted mode. I have installed wu-ftpd from Porting and Archive Centre, and also I have downloaded and compiled vsftpd. But when trying to use both of them I always get "Login incorrect" no mather what account I use. What could I being missing ? Thanks in advance for your comments.

Regards

Jose Enrique

[IT Response]

Check the /var/adm/sys/syslog.log for more information. A common problem causing this symptom is for the user's shell from his /etc/passwd entryto not be listed in /etc/shells.

See the man page for "shells" and "getusershell".

Good luck !

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Jose,

You can use one or the other, but you can't have two ftpd servers running on port 20-21.

Note that merely downloading and compiling vsftpd does not install it as an ftpd server. It would be useful to know which is running because if there are configuration changes to make, which server needs to be configured is important.

The login incorrect message may have nothing to do with your choice of ftpd servers. You can look at /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log to see the error.

Good diagnostics:
Try using the account with ssh or telnet. Does it work? If not, see the syslog file and act on what it says. If it does work you could be the victim of an incomplete installation of vsftpd.

Please make sure only one of the two products is running. I believe that vsftpd has a distinctive login prompt that includes the version number. If its providing the ftp login prompt and the other tests produce normal results, comment out the wu-ftpd server in /etc/inetd.conf and inetd -c to reload the inetd daemon.

SEP

[José Enrique González]

I have included the shell in /etc/shells. And of course I am activating one line at a time in /etc/inetd.conf. May be downloaded wu-ftpd and vsftpd are not trusted-system compatible?

[David Nixon]

Hello Jose,

Try building vsftpd with PAM support
disabled. Such a build would then use the
getspnam() "shadow" interface for retrieving
passwords.

I have tested vsftpd version 2.05 under
11.11, in trusted mode, and shadow support was the only
build option that could authenticate users
for local logins.

It's possible that the vsftp PAM code needs
tweaking for HP-UX.

DaveN.

[José Enrique González]

It makes sense to me. Could you tell me how you did it? I tried setting "undef" the variable related to PAM in builddefs.h, but it still doesn't allow me local logins. Thanks in advance

Jose Enrique

[David Nixon]

I have attached a file containing the Makefile and builddefs.h that I used.

[José Enrique González]

Thank you, David! I used the files you attached and could successfully build vsftp, but (snif..) it stils shows "Login incorrect" message. Of course you tested it on HP-UX 11.11 and I am testing on HP-UX 11.23. Im sure there's a major change in FTP fropm one release to another, as the problem I am facing with the Itaniums servers is not present in PA-RISC 11i servers in the same network.

Any major change in authentication methods that you think should be taked into account? Maybe changes in PAM? Thanks for your comments

Jose Enrique

[David Nixon]

I wouldn't expect that differences between
11.11 and 11.23 explain your login failures
with vsftpd.
vsftpd has several pre-requisites - a lack of one or other of these , such as the unprivileged user 'ftpsecure', could deny login.
From looking at the source, I would say
that a vsftpd built without PAM won't
authenticate passwords longer than 8 chars.