vsftpd.conf
VSFTPD.CONF(5) VSFTPD.CONF(5)
NAME
vsftpd.conf - config file for vsftpd
DESCRIPTION
vsftpd.conf may be used to control various aspects of vsftpd’s
behaviour. By default, vsftpd looks for this file at the location
/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf. However, you may override this by specifying
a command line argument to vsftpd. The command line argument is the
pathname of the configuration file for vsftpd. This behaviour is use-
ful because you may wish to use an advanced inetd such as xinetd to
launch vsftpd with different configuration files on a per virtual host
basis.
FORMAT
The format of vsftpd.conf is very simple. Each line is either a com-
ment or a directive. Comment lines start with a # and are ignored. A
directive line has the format:
option=value
It is important to note that it is an error to put any space between
the option, = and value.
Each setting has a compiled in default which may be modified in the
configuration file.
BOOLEAN OPTIONS
Below is a list of boolean options. The value for a boolean option may
be set to YES or NO.
allow_anon_ssl
Only applies if ssl_enable is active. If set to YES, anonymous
users will be allowed to use secured SSL connections.
Default: NO
anon_mkdir_write_enable
If set to YES, anonymous users will be permitted to create new
directories under certain conditions. For this to work, the
option write_enable must be activated, and the anonymous ftp
user must have write permission on the parent directory.
Default: NO
anon_other_write_enable
If set to YES, anonymous users will be permitted to perform
write operations other than upload and create directory, such
as deletion and renaming. This is generally not recommended but
included for completeness.
Default: NO
anon_upload_enable
If set to YES, anonymous users will be permitted to upload
files under certain conditions. For this to work, the option
write_enable must be activated, and the anonymous ftp user must
have write permission on desired upload locations.
Default: NO
anon_world_readable_only
When enabled, anonymous users will only be allowed to download
files which are world readable. This is recognising that the
ftp user may own files, especially in the presence of uploads.
Default: YES
anonymous_enable
Controls whether anonymous logins are permitted or not. If
enabled, both the usernames ftp and anonymous are recognised as
anonymous logins.
Default: YES
ascii_download_enable
When enabled, ASCII mode data transfers will be honoured on
downloads.
Default: NO
ascii_upload_enable
When enabled, ASCII mode data transfers will be honoured on
uploads.
Default: NO
async_abor_enable
When enabled, a special FTP command known as "async ABOR" will
be enabled. Only ill advised FTP clients will use this fea-
ture. Additionally, this feature is awkward to handle, so it is
disabled by default. Unfortunately, some FTP clients will hang
when cancelling a transfer unless this feature is available, so
you may wish to enable it.
Default: NO
background
When enabled, and vsftpd is started in "listen" mode, vsftpd
will background the listener process. i.e. control will immedi-
ately be returned to the shell which launched vsftpd.
Default: NO
check_shell
Note! This option only has an effect for non-PAM builds of
vsftpd. If disabled, vsftpd will not check /etc/shells for a
valid user shell for local logins.
Default: YES
chmod_enable
When enables, allows use of the SITE CHMOD command. NOTE! This
only applies to local users. Anonymous users never get to use
SITE CHMOD.
Default: YES
chown_uploads
If enabled, all anonymously uploaded files will have the owner-
ship changed to the user specified in the setting chown_user-
name. This is useful from an administrative, and perhaps secu-
rity, standpoint.
Default: NO
chroot_list_enable
If activated, you may provide a list of local users who are
placed in a chroot() jail in their home directory upon login.
The meaning is slightly different if chroot_local_user is set
to YES. In this case, the list becomes a list of users which
are NOT to be placed in a chroot() jail. By default, the file
containing this list is /etc/vsftpd.chroot_list, but you may
override this with the chroot_list_file setting.
Default: NO
chroot_local_user
If set to YES, local users will be (by default) placed in a
chroot() jail in their home directory after login. Warning:
This option has security implications, especially if the users
have upload permission, or shell access. Only enable if you
know what you are doing. Note that these security implications
are not vsftpd specific. They apply to all FTP daemons which
offer to put local users in chroot() jails.
Default: NO
connect_from_port_20
This controls whether PORT style data connections use port 20
(ftp-data) on the server machine. For security reasons, some
clients may insist that this is the case. Conversely, disabling
this option enables vsftpd to run with slightly less privilege.
Default: NO (but the sample config file enables it)
deny_email_enable
If activated, you may provide a list of anonymous password e-
mail responses which cause login to be denied. By default, the
file containing this list is /etc/vsftpd.banned_emails, but you
may override this with the banned_email_file setting.
Default: NO
dirlist_enable
If set to NO, all directory list commands will give permission
denied.
Default: YES
dirmessage_enable
If enabled, users of the FTP server can be shown messages when
they first enter a new directory. By default, a directory is
scanned for the file .message, but that may be overridden with
the configuration setting message_file.
Default: NO (but the sample config file enables it)
download_enable
If set to NO, all download requests will give permission
denied.
Default: YES
dual_log_enable
If enabled, two log files are generated in parallel, going by
default to /var/log/xferlog and /var/log/vsftpd.log. The for-
mer is a wu-ftpd style transfer log, parseable by standard
tools. The latter is vsftpd’s own style log.
Default: NO
force_dot_files
If activated, files and directories starting with . will be
shown in directory listings even if the "a" flag was not used
by the client. This override excludes the "." and ".." entries.
Default: NO
force_local_data_ssl
Only applies if ssl_enable is activated. If activated, all non-
anonymous logins are forced to use a secure SSL connection in
order to send and receive data on data connections.
Default: YES
force_local_logins_ssl
Only applies if ssl_enable is activated. If activated, all non-
anonymous logins are forced to use a secure SSL connection in
order to send the password.
Default: YES
guest_enable
If enabled, all non-anonymous logins are classed as "guest"
logins. A guest login is remapped to the user specified in the
guest_username setting.
Default: NO
hide_ids
If enabled, all user and group information in directory list-
ings will be displayed as "ftp".
Default: NO
listen If enabled, vsftpd will run in standalone mode. This means that
vsftpd must not be run from an inetd of some kind. Instead, the
vsftpd executable is run once directly. vsftpd itself will then
take care of listening for and handling incoming connections.
Default: NO
listen_ipv6
Like the listen parameter, except vsftpd will listen on an IPv6
socket instead of an IPv4 one. This parameter and the listen
parameter are mutually exclusive.
Default: NO
local_enable
Controls whether local logins are permitted or not. If enabled,
normal user accounts in /etc/passwd may be used to log in.
Default: NO
lock_upload_files
When enabled, all uploads proceed with a write lock on the
upload file. All downloads proceed with a shared read lock on
the download file. WARNING! Before enabling this, be aware
that malicious readers could starve a writer wanting to e.g.
append a file.
Default: YES
log_ftp_protocol
When enabled, all FTP requests and responses are logged, pro-
viding the option xferlog_std_format is not enabled. Useful for
debugging.
Default: NO
ls_recurse_enable
When enabled, this setting will allow the use of "ls -R". This
is a minor security risk, because a ls -R at the top level of a
large site may consume a lot of resources.
Default: NO
no_anon_password
When enabled, this prevents vsftpd from asking for an anonymous
password - the anonymous user will log straight in.
Default: NO
no_log_lock
When enabled, this prevents vsftpd from taking a file lock when
writing to log files. This option should generally not be
enabled. It exists to workaround operating system bugs such as
the Solaris / Veritas filesystem combination which has been
observed to sometimes exhibit hangs trying to lock log files.
Default: NO
one_process_model
If you have a Linux 2.4 kernel, it is possible to use a differ-
ent security model which only uses one process per connection.
It is a less pure security model, but gains you performance.
You really don’t want to enable this unless you know what you
are doing, and your site supports huge numbers of simultane-
ously connected users.
Default: NO
passwd_chroot_enable
If enabled, along with chroot_local_user , then a chroot() jail
location may be specified on a per-user basis. Each user’s jail
is derived from their home directory string in /etc/passwd. The
occurrence of /./ in the home directory string denotes that the
jail is at that particular location in the path.
Default: NO
pasv_enable
Set to NO if you want to disallow the PASV method of obtaining
a data connection.
Default: YES
pasv_promiscuous
Set to YES if you want to disable the PASV security check that
ensures the data connection originates from the same IP address
as the control connection. Only enable if you know what you
are doing! The only legitimate use for this is in some form of
secure tunnelling scheme, or perhaps to facilitate FXP support.
Default: NO
port_enable
Set to NO if you want to disallow the PORT method of obtaining
a data connection.
Default: YES
port_promiscuous
Set to YES if you want to disable the PORT security check that
ensures that outgoing data connections can only connect to the
client. Only enable if you know what you are doing!
Default: NO
run_as_launching_user
Set to YES if you want vsftpd to run as the user which launched
vsftpd. This is useful where root access is not available. MAS-
SIVE WARNING! Do NOT enable this option unless you totally know
what you are doing, as naive use of this option can create mas-
sive security problems. Specifically, vsftpd does not / cannot
use chroot technology to restrict file access when this option
is set (even if launched by root). A poor substitute could be
to use a deny_file setting such as {/*,*..*}, but the reliabil-
ity of this cannot compare to chroot, and should not be relied
on. If using this option, many restrictions on other options
apply. For example, options requiring privilege such as non-
anonymous logins, upload ownership changing, connecting from
port 20 and listen ports less than 1024 are not expected to
work. Other options may be impacted.
Default: NO
secure_email_list_enable
Set to YES if you want only a specified list of e-mail pass-
words for anonymous logins to be accepted. This is useful as a
low-hassle way of restricting access to low-security content
without needing virtual users. When enabled, anonymous logins
are prevented unless the password provided is listed in the
file specified by the email_password_file setting. The file
format is one password per line, no extra whitespace. The
default filename is /etc/vsftpd.email_passwords.
Default: NO
session_support
This controls whether vsftpd attempts to maintain sessions for
logins. If vsftpd is maintaining sessions, it will try and
update utmp and wtmp. It will also open a pam_session if using
PAM to authenticate, and only close this upon logout. You may
wish to disable this if you do not need session logging, and
you wish to give vsftpd more opportunity to run with less pro-
cesses and / or less privilege. NOTE - utmp and wtmp support is
only provided with PAM enabled builds.
Default: NO
setproctitle_enable
If enabled, vsftpd will try and show session status information
in the system process listing. In other words, the reported
name of the process will change to reflect what a vsftpd ses-
sion is doing (idle, downloading etc). You probably want to
leave this off for security purposes.
Default: NO
ssl_enable
If enabled, and vsftpd was compiled against OpenSSL, vsftpd
will support secure connections via SSL. This applies to the
control connection (including login) and also data connections.
You’ll need a client with SSL support too. NOTE!! Beware
enabling this option. Only enable it if you need it. vsftpd can
make no guarantees about the security of the OpenSSL libraries.
By enabling this option, you are declaring that you trust the
security of your installed OpenSSL library.
Default: NO
ssl_sslv2
Only applies if ssl_enable is activated. If enabled, this
option will permit SSL v2 protocol connections. TLS v1 connec-
tions are preferred.
Default: NO
ssl_sslv3
Only applies if ssl_enable is activated. If enabled, this
option will permit SSL v3 protocol connections. TLS v1 connec-
tions are preferred.
Default: NO
ssl_tlsv1
Only applies if ssl_enable is activated. If enabled, this
option will permit TLS v1 protocol connections. TLS v1 connec-
tions are preferred.
Default: YES
syslog_enable
If enabled, then any log output which would have gone to
/var/log/vsftpd.log goes to the system log instead. Logging is
done under the FTPD facility.
Default: NO
tcp_wrappers
If enabled, and vsftpd was compiled with tcp_wrappers support,
incoming connections will be fed through tcp_wrappers access
control. Furthermore, there is a mechanism for per-IP based
configuration. If tcp_wrappers sets the VSFTPD_LOAD_CONF envi-
ronment variable, then the vsftpd session will try and load the
vsftpd configuration file specified in this variable.
Default: NO
text_userdb_names
By default, numeric IDs are shown in the user and group fields
of directory listings. You can get textual names by enabling
this parameter. It is off by default for performance reasons.
Default: NO
tilde_user_enable
If enabled, vsftpd will try and resolve pathnames such as
~chris/pics, i.e. a tilde followed by a username. Note that
vsftpd will always resolve the pathnames ~ and ~/something (in
this case the ~ resolves to the initial login directory). Note
that ~user paths will only resolve if the file /etc/passwd may
be found within the _current_ chroot() jail.
Default: NO
use_localtime
If enabled, vsftpd will display directory listings with the
time in your local time zone. The default is to display GMT.
The times returned by the MDTM FTP command are also affected by
this option.
Default: NO
use_sendfile
An internal setting used for testing the relative benefit of
using the sendfile() system call on your platform.
Default: YES
userlist_deny
This option is examined if userlist_enable is activated. If you
set this setting to NO, then users will be denied login unless
they are explicitly listed in the file specified by
userlist_file. When login is denied, the denial is issued
before the user is asked for a password.
Default: YES
userlist_enable
If enabled, vsftpd will load a list of usernames, from the
filename given by userlist_file. If a user tries to log in
using a name in this file, they will be denied before they are
asked for a password. This may be useful in preventing cleart-
ext passwords being transmitted. See also userlist_deny.
Default: NO
virtual_use_local_privs
If enabled, virtual users will use the same privileges as local
users. By default, virtual users will use the same privileges
as anonymous users, which tends to be more restrictive (espe-
cially in terms of write access).
Default: NO
write_enable
This controls whether any FTP commands which change the
filesystem are allowed or not. These commands are: STOR, DELE,
RNFR, RNTO, MKD, RMD, APPE and SITE.
Default: NO
xferlog_enable
If enabled, a log file will be maintained detailling uploads
and downloads. By default, this file will be placed at
/var/log/vsftpd.log, but this location may be overridden using
the configuration setting vsftpd_log_file.
Default: NO (but the sample config file enables it)
xferlog_std_format
If enabled, the transfer log file will be written in standard
xferlog format, as used by wu-ftpd. This is useful because you
can reuse existing transfer statistics generators. The default
format is more readable, however. The default location for this
style of log file is /var/log/xferlog, but you may change it
with the setting xferlog_file.
Default: NO
NUMERIC OPTIONS
Below is a list of numeric options. A numeric option must be set to a
non negative integer. Octal numbers are supported, for convenience of
the umask options. To specify an octal number, use 0 as the first
digit of the number.
accept_timeout
The timeout, in seconds, for a remote client to establish con-
nection with a PASV style data connection.
Default: 60
anon_max_rate
The maximum data transfer rate permitted, in bytes per second,
for anonymous clients.
Default: 0 (unlimited)
anon_umask
The value that the umask for file creation is set to for anony-
mous users. NOTE! If you want to specify octal values, remember
the "0" prefix otherwise the value will be treated as a base 10
integer!
Default: 077
connect_timeout
The timeout, in seconds, for a remote client to respond to our
PORT style data connection.
Default: 60
data_connection_timeout
The timeout, in seconds, which is roughly the maximum time we
permit data transfers to stall for with no progress. If the
timeout triggers, the remote client is kicked off.
Default: 300
file_open_mode
The permissions with which uploaded files are created. Umasks
are applied on top of this value. You may wish to change to
0777 if you want uploaded files to be executable.
Default: 0666
ftp_data_port
The port from which PORT style connections originate (as long
as the poorly named connect_from_port_20 is enabled).
Default: 20
idle_session_timeout
The timeout, in seconds, which is the maximum time a remote
client may spend between FTP commands. If the timeout triggers,
the remote client is kicked off.
Default: 300
listen_port
If vsftpd is in standalone mode, this is the port it will lis-
ten on for incoming FTP connections.
Default: 21
local_max_rate
The maximum data transfer rate permitted, in bytes per second,
for local authenticated users.
Default: 0 (unlimited)
local_umask
The value that the umask for file creation is set to for local
users. NOTE! If you want to specify octal values, remember the
"0" prefix otherwise the value will be treated as a base 10
integer!
Default: 077
max_clients
If vsftpd is in standalone mode, this is the maximum number of
clients which may be connected. Any additional clients connect-
ing will get an error message.
Default: 0 (unlimited)
max_login_fails
After this many login failures, the session is killed.
Default: 3
max_per_ip
If vsftpd is in standalone mode, this is the maximum number of
clients which may be connected from the same source internet
address. A client will get an error message if they go over
this limit.
Default: 0 (unlimited)
pasv_max_port
The maximum port to allocate for PASV style data connections.
Can be used to specify a narrow port range to assist fire-
walling.
Default: 0 (use any port)
pasv_min_port
The minimum port to allocate for PASV style data connections.
Can be used to specify a narrow port range to assist fire-
walling.
Default: 0 (use any port)
trans_chunk_size
You probably don’t want to change this, but try setting it to
something like 8192 for a much smoother bandwidth limiter.
Default: 0 (let vsftpd pick a sensible setting)
STRING OPTIONS
Below is a list of string options.
anon_root
This option represents a directory which vsftpd will try to
change into after an anonymous login. Failure is silently
ignored.
Default: (none)
banned_email_file
This option is the name of a file containing a list of anony-
mous e-mail passwords which are not permitted. This file is
consulted if the option deny_email_enable is enabled.
Default: /etc/vsftpd.banned_emails
banner_file
This option is the name of a file containing text to display
when someone connects to the server. If set, it overrides the
banner string provided by the ftpd_banner option.
Default: (none)
chown_username
This is the name of the user who is given ownership of anony-
mously uploaded files. This option is only relevant if another
option, chown_uploads, is set.
Default: root
chroot_list_file
The option is the name of a file containing a list of local
users which will be placed in a chroot() jail in their home
directory. This option is only relevant if the option
chroot_list_enable is enabled. If the option chroot_local_user
is enabled, then the list file becomes a list of users to NOT
place in a chroot() jail.
Default: /etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
cmds_allowed
This options specifies a comma separated list of allowed FTP
commands (post login. USER, PASS and QUIT are always allowed
pre-login). Other commands are rejected. This is a powerful
method of really locking down an FTP server. Example:
cmds_allowed=PASV,RETR,QUIT
Default: (none)
deny_file
This option can be used to set a pattern for filenames (and
directory names etc.) which should not be accessible in any
way. The affected items are not hidden, but any attempt to do
anything to them (download, change into directory, affect some-
thing within directory etc.) will be denied. This option is
very simple, and should not be used for serious access control
- the filesystem’s permissions should be used in preference.
However, this option may be useful in certain virtual user
setups. In particular aware that if a filename is accessible by
a variety of names (perhaps due to symbolic links or hard
links), then care must be taken to deny access to all the
names. Access will be denied to items if their name contains
the string given by hide_file, or if they match the regular
expression specified by hide_file. Note that vsftpd’s regular
expression matching code is a simple implementation which is a
subset of full regular expression functionality. Because of
this, you will need to carefully and exhaustively test any
application of this option. And you are recommended to use
filesystem permissions for any important security policies due
to their greater reliability. Example:
deny_file={*.mp3,*.mov,.private}
Default: (none)
dsa_cert_file
This option specifies the location of the DSA certificate to
use for SSL encrypted connections.
Default: (none - an RSA certificate suffices)
email_password_file
This option can be used to provide an alternate file for usage
by the secure_email_list_enable setting.
Default: /etc/vsftpd.email_passwords
ftp_username
This is the name of the user we use for handling anonymous FTP.
The home directory of this user is the root of the anonymous
FTP area.
Default: ftp
ftpd_banner
This string option allows you to override the greeting banner
displayed by vsftpd when a connection first comes in.
Default: (none - default vsftpd banner is displayed)
guest_username
See the boolean setting guest_enable for a description of what
constitutes a guest login. This setting is the real username
which guest users are mapped to.
Default: ftp
hide_file
This option can be used to set a pattern for filenames (and
directory names etc.) which should be hidden from directory
listings. Despite being hidden, the files / directories etc.
are fully accessible to clients who know what names to actually
use. Items will be hidden if their names contain the string
given by hide_file, or if they match the regular expression
specified by hide_file. Note that vsftpd’s regular expression
matching code is a simple implementation which is a subset of
full regular expression functionality. Example:
hide_file={*.mp3,.hidden,hide*,h?}
Default: (none)
listen_address
If vsftpd is in standalone mode, the default listen address (of
all local interfaces) may be overridden by this setting. Pro-
vide a numeric IP address.
Default: (none)
listen_address6
Like listen_address, but specifies a default listen address for
the IPv6 listener (which is used if listen_ipv6 is set). Format
is standard IPv6 address format.
Default: (none)
local_root
This option represents a directory which vsftpd will try to
change into after a local (i.e. non-anonymous) login. Failure
is silently ignored.
Default: (none)
message_file
This option is the name of the file we look for when a new
directory is entered. The contents are displayed to the remote
user. This option is only relevant if the option dirmes-
sage_enable is enabled.
Default: .message
nopriv_user
This is the name of the user that is used by vsftpd when it
wants to be totally unprivileged. Note that this should be a
dedicated user, rather than nobody. The user nobody tends to be
used for rather a lot of important things on most machines.
Default: nobody
pam_service_name
This string is the name of the PAM service vsftpd will use.
Default: ftp
pasv_address
Use this option to override the IP address that vsftpd will
advertise in response to the PASV command. Provide a numeric IP
address.
Default: (none - the address is taken from the incoming con-
nected socket)
rsa_cert_file
This option specifies the location of the RSA certificate to
use for SSL encrypted connections.
Default: /usr/share/ssl/certs/vsftpd.pem
secure_chroot_dir
This option should be the name of a directory which is empty.
Also, the directory should not be writable by the ftp user.
This directory is used as a secure chroot() jail at times
vsftpd does not require filesystem access.
Default: /usr/share/empty
ssl_ciphers
This option can be used to select which SSL ciphers vsftpd will
allow for encrpyted SSL connections. See the ciphers man page
for further details. Note that restricting ciphers can be a
useful security precaution as it prevents malicious remote par-
ties forcing a cipher which they have found problems with.
Default: DES-CBC3-SHA
user_config_dir
This powerful option allows the override of any config option
specified in the manual page, on a per-user basis. Usage is
simple, and is best illustrated with an example. If you set
user_config_dir to be /etc/vsftpd_user_conf and then log on as
the user "chris", then vsftpd will apply the settings in the
file /etc/vsftpd_user_conf/chris for the duration of the ses-
sion. The format of this file is as detailed in this manual
page! PLEASE NOTE that not all settings are effective on a per-
user basis. For example, many settings only prior to the user’s
session being started. Examples of settings which will not
affect any behviour on a per-user basis include listen_address,
banner_file, max_per_ip, max_clients, xferlog_file, etc.
Default: (none)
user_sub_token
This option is useful is conjunction with virtual users. It is
used to automatically generate a home directory for each vir-
tual user, based on a template. For example, if the home direc-
tory of the real user specified via guest_username is
/home/virtual/$USER, and user_sub_token is set to $USER, then
when virtual user fred logs in, he will end up (usually
chroot()’ed) in the directory /home/virtual/fred. This option
also takes affect if local_root contains user_sub_token.
Default: (none)
userlist_file
This option is the name of the file loaded when the
userlist_enable option is active.
Default: /etc/vsftpd.user_list
vsftpd_log_file
This option is the name of the file to which we write the
vsftpd style log file. This log is only written if the option
xferlog_enable is set, and xferlog_std_format is NOT set.
Alternatively, it is written if you have set the option
dual_log_enable. One further complication - if you have set
syslog_enable, then this file is not written and output is sent
to the system log instead.
Default: /var/log/vsftpd.log
xferlog_file
This option is the name of the file to which we write the wu-
ftpd style transfer log. The transfer log is only written if
the option xferlog_enable is set, along with xferlog_std_for-
mat. Alternatively, it is written if you have set the option
dual_log_enable.
Default: /var/log/xferlog
AUTHOR
chris@scary.beasts.org
VSFTPD.CONF(5)
