New 'Email and FTP' user is unable to connect to ProFTPD Server

Virtualmin
1

I apologise if I seem like a one hit and run poster here; truth is, I’ve never had problems with Webmin/Virtualmin so I’ve never really had a reason to join the community :slight_smile:

I’m currently running Virtualmin GPL on CentOS 5.4 with a typical lamp setup.

I’ve created a new domain domain.com and the user domain is able to successfully ftp. - success
I then created a e-mail only user, attempted to ftp and he was denied - success (assigned shell is /dev/null)

I then created a e-mail + ftp user, however he is unable to ftp to the server. The assigned shell is /bin/false so ftp shouldn’t be a problem.

I have tried with ProFTP’s ‘allow only users with valid shells’ option enabled and disabled but the result is the same.

2

I seem to have solved the issue.

A simple echo "/bin/false" >> /etc/shells does the trick :slight_smile:

Are their any security implications of having /bin/false listed as a valid system shell?

3

Howdy,

Are their any security implications of having /bin/false listed as a valid system shell?

Well, only that users in /etc/passwd who have /bin/false as their username, and a password set, would be able to login via FTP.

That’s typically not an issue, though you can always review what existing users have /bin/false set as their shell, and you could change it to something else, such as /dev/null.

-Eric

4

Hi Eric

I assume you meant /bin/false as their shell :slight_smile:

I’ve made sure of the following:

  • only allow users with a valid shell (now including /bin/false) to login via ftp
  • all system user accounts have been added to /etc/ftpusers and majority have /sbin/nologin as their shell

thanks for your quick support.