proftpd blocking out user?

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to narrow down my FTP problem, and finally came close today. But could use someone's help. I created a user (webuser) using adduser and added him to a group called webusers. I then carried out the following:

Code:

chgrp webusers /var/www/

so that this one user could have access to all of the folders in my /var/www/ directory. But for some reason when I try to FTP in (Only with this user), it will either time out or simply not list the directory contents. I SSH'd into my server as webuser and even tried to make sure that I could ls the /var/www/ directory and was able to create a new file and then delete it so it is not a permissions problem. So the only thing that I could think of was that perhaps proftpd was blocking that one user? Is that possible?

Here is my proftpd.conf file:

Code:

#
# /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf -- This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file.
# To really apply changes reload proftpd after modifications.
# 

# Includes DSO modules
Include /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

# Set off to disable IPv6 support which is annoying on IPv4 only boxes.
UseIPv6				off

ServerName			"Debian"
ServerType			standalone
DeferWelcome			off

MultilineRFC2228		on
DefaultServer			on
ShowSymlinks			on

TimeoutNoTransfer		600
TimeoutStalled			600
TimeoutIdle			1200

DisplayLogin                    welcome.msg
DisplayChdir                    .message
ListOptions                	"-l"

DenyFilter			\*.*/

# Use this to jail all users in their homes 
DefaultRoot			~

# Users require a valid shell listed in /etc/shells to login.
# Use this directive to release that constrain.
# RequireValidShell		off

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port				21

# In some cases you have to specify passive ports range to by-pass
# firewall limitations. Ephemeral ports can be used for that, but
# feel free to use a more narrow range.
# PassivePorts                  49152 65534

# If your host was NATted, this option is useful in order to
# allow passive tranfers to work. You have to use your public
# address and opening the passive ports used on your firewall as well.
# MasqueradeAddress		1.2.3.4

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30.  If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value.  Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd)
MaxInstances			30

# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User				proftpd
Group				nogroup

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
# (second parm) from being group and world writable.
Umask				022  022
# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
AllowOverwrite			on

# Uncomment this if you are using NIS or LDAP to retrieve passwords:
# PersistentPasswd		off

# Be warned: use of this directive impacts CPU average load!
# Uncomment this if you like to see progress and transfer rate with ftpwho
# in downloads. That is not needed for uploads rates.
#
# UseSendFile			off

# Choose a SQL backend among MySQL or PostgreSQL.
# Both modules are loaded in default configuration, so you have to specify the backend 
# or comment out the unused module in /etc/proftpd/modules.conf.
# Use 'mysql' or 'postgres' as possible values.
#
#<IfModule mod_sql.c>
# SQLBackend			mysql
#</IfModule>

TransferLog /var/log/proftpd/xferlog
SystemLog   /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log

<IfModule mod_tls.c>
TLSEngine off
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_quota.c>
QuotaEngine on
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ratio.c>
Ratios on
</IfModule>


# Delay engine reduces impact of the so-called Timing Attack described in
# http://security.lss.hr/index.php?page=details&ID=LSS-2004-10-02
# It is on by default. 
<IfModule mod_delay.c>
DelayEngine on
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls.c>
ControlsEngine        on
ControlsMaxClients    2
ControlsLog           /var/log/proftpd/controls.log
ControlsInterval      5
ControlsSocket        /var/run/proftpd/proftpd.sock
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls_admin.c>
AdminControlsEngine on
</IfModule>

# A basic anonymous configuration, no upload directories.

# <Anonymous ~ftp>
#   User				ftp
#   Group				nogroup
#   # We want clients to be able to login with "anonymous" as well as "ftp"
#   UserAlias			anonymous ftp
#   # Cosmetic changes, all files belongs to ftp user
#   DirFakeUser	on ftp
#   DirFakeGroup on ftp
# 
#   RequireValidShell		off
# 
#   # Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins
#   MaxClients			10
# 
#   # We want 'welcome.msg' displayed at login, and '.message' displayed
#   # in each newly chdired directory.
#   DisplayLogin			welcome.msg
#   DisplayFirstChdir		.message
# 
#   # Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot
#   <Directory *>
#     <Limit WRITE>
#       DenyAll
#     </Limit>
#   </Directory>
# 
#   # Uncomment this if you're brave.
#   # <Directory incoming>
#   #   # Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
#   #   # (second parm) from being group and world writable.
#   #   Umask				022  022
#   #            <Limit READ WRITE>
#   #            DenyAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   #            <Limit STOR>
#   #            AllowAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   # </Directory>
# 
# </Anonymous>

IdentLookups off
ServerIdent on "FTP Server ready."


DefaultRoot ~

Include /etc/proftpd_ispconfig.conf

UseReverseDNS off

If anyone else has any other ideas to solve this please let me know!!

 

Are there any errors in your logs? Did you try active and passive mode?
What's webuser's home directory?

 

No there are no errors in the proftpd log, only ones saying that the user successfully logged in and that its chrooting to /var/www/

The home folder is /var/www/ so that one user can browse all of my web folders for ease of access. I've had this working in the past, and don't know why it stopped working now.

I have tried both active and passive, but none the less I can log in on any different user fine with active and passive.

 

What's the output of

Code:

grep webuser /etc/passwd

, and what's in /etc/shells?

 

/etc/passwd:

Code:

webuser:x:1002:1002:,,,:/var/www/:/bin/bash

and /etc/shells:

Code:

# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/csh
/bin/sh
/usr/bin/es
/usr/bin/ksh
/bin/ksh
/usr/bin/rc
/usr/bin/tcsh
/bin/tcsh
/usr/bin/esh
/bin/dash
/bin/bash
/bin/rbash
/bin/false
/SENDMAIL/ANY/SHELL/

 

That's ok. What's the output of

Code:

ls -la /var/www

?

 

Data removed for privacy

 

Here is just a quick addition to help you troubleshoot:

I have an VERY weird problem. I can login with this user when I am inside the local network. But when I get out I cannot FTP in with this user (But still can with other users).

I am completely baffled.

 

Did you also try active and passive mode from outside your LAN? I guess it could be your router's firewall.

 

Yes, I have tried both active and passive outside my LAN. But how would that explain letting me login as anyone else?

 

Can you move the server into the DMZ (you can configure the DMZ on your router) and try again? If it works then, your router's firewall is most likely the problem.

 

All right, put the server on the DMZ and all the ports are open, but I still can't seem to FTP in with that one particular user. =(

 

I'm not sure if this would have anything to do with it, but when I restart proftpd, it says:

Code:

/etc/init.d/proftpd restart
 * Stopping ftp server proftpd
   ...done.
 * Starting ftp server proftpd
 - setting default address to 127.0.0.1
   ...done.

Should that be my external IP?

 

Finally making some progress. If I FTP in with specifing the direct path it works (but only with some folders). The only thing that I can think of is a permissions issue ?=(

 

Did you compare the parmissions (and ownerships) of the working with the not working directories?

 

I tried with ls -l but couldn't seem to make any sense out of it. What would be the best way to compare them?

 

If you see something like this:

Code:

root@server1:~# ls -l
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 2008-09-22 14:31 ispconfig
root@server1:~#

then the "d" means it's a directory, the next three letters are for the owner ("rwx" means read, write, and execute permissions), the following three letters ("r-x" = read and execute permissions) are for the group, and the last three letters ("r-x") are for everyone else.

"root root" means that the owner is root, and the group is "root" as well.

 

Falko, I PM'd you my permissions if you'd care to look at them.

 

You sent me the permissions of just one directory. I need the permissions of one working and one not-working directory.

 

My apologies, I just sent you a non working directory as well.