FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used as one of the most common means of copying files between servers over the Internet. Most web based download sites use the built in FTP capabilities of web browsers and therefore most server oriented operating systems usually
Quick Linux FTP Server Setup
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used as one of the most common means of copying files between servers over the Internet. Most web based download sites use the built in FTP capabilities of web browsers and therefore most server oriented operating systems usually include an FTP server application as part of the software suite. Linux is no exception. This chapter will show you how to convert your Linux box into an FTP server using the default Very Secure FTP Daemon (VSFTPD) package included in Fedora. From a networking perspective, the two main types of FTP are active and passive. In active FTP, the FTP server initiates a data transfer connection back to the client. For passive FTP, the connection is initiated from the FTP client.
Linux FTP Server
The File Transfer Protocol, FTP is one of the most popular way to transfer files from machine to machine across a network. The Clients and servers have been written for almost all popular platforms in the market or thereby making FTP the most convenient way to perform file
transfers. The Linux Server as a private user-only site, which is the default configuration for an FTP server; a private FTP server allows users on the Linux system only to be able to connect via FTP and access their files. Another method is to configure as an anonymous FTP server. An anonymous FTP server allows anyone on the network to connect to it and transfer files without having an account. Due to the potential security risk involved with this setup, precautions should be taken to allow access only to certain directories on the system.
Vsftpd - Secure, fast FTP server
The vsftpd is a GPL licensed FTP server for UNIX systems, including Linux. It is secure and extremely fast. It is stable. Don't take my word for it, though. Below, we will see evidence supporting all three assertions. We will also see a list of a few important sites which are happily using vsftpd. This demonstrates vsftpd is a mature and trusted solution. Despite being small for purposes of speed and security, many more complicated FTP setups are achievable with vsftpd! By no means an exclusive list, vsftpd will handle:
Virtual IP configurations
Virtual users
Standalone or inetd operation
Powerful per-user configurability
Bandwidth throttling
Pure FTP Server
Pure-FTPd is actively supported, and it was always designed with security in mind, and the code is always re-audited as new kind of
vulnerabilities are discussed. The server can run with privilege separation for paranoid security. It can even run 100% non-root, with its built-in chroot() emulation and virtual accounts. Transmission of clear text passwords and commands can be avoided : Pure-FTPd has optional support for an SSL/TLS encryption layer using the OpenSSL library. The same source code compiles and runs on Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD FreeBSD, Solaris, Tru64, Darwin, Irix and HPUX.Pre-built binary packages are available for Novell, Mandriva, Debian, Ubuntu, PLD Linux, Stampede Linux, Slackware Linux , Multilinux, Sorcerer Linux, Fli4L (the one-disk router), ROOT Linux, Gentoo Linux and almost every other free operating system.
Linux FTP Server Performance Bakeoff
Linux performance of FTP daemons for Linux in a kind of performance bake-off sometime around March 2001. Each daemon will be subjected to a torture test to see how many simultaneous dialup downloads it can support. The results will be posted publicly, and I'll send the author of the winning FTP daemon a care package of homemade cookies :- There will be separate categories for free and for commercial FTP daemons, and for "Document Tree Smaller than System RAM" and "Document Tree Larger than System RAM", so I'll be baking several batches of cookies.
FTP-Server and -Clients
The user needs an FTP client to access the server. Every major Linux distribution includes the console client "ftp".This program is hard to use and should be relegated to use with small scripts only. If you frequently access FTP servers, you would probably like to have a nice graphical FTP client. A plethora of clients exist but - as usual - they have all their strengths and weaknesses and are tailored to special users' needs.The program AxyFTP, which was called WxFTP in an earlier version, exists in two frontend versions: Motif and GTK.The program uses two file browsers (as do many other FTP clients): one for your local directory and one for the directory you are connected to.
Security FTP
The File Transport Protocol (FTP) is an older TCP protocol designed to transfer files over a network. Because all transactions with the server, including user authentication, are unencrypted, it is considered an insecure protocol and should be carefully configured. Before submitting a user name and password, all users are presented with a greeting banner. By default, this banner includes version information useful to crackers trying to identify weaknesses in a system.
Hacking Linux Exposed
The Building Linux Virtual Private Networks offers concise, step-by-step instructions for building VPNs based on both standard protocols (IPSec, SSL, SSH, PPTP) and popular Linux VPN solutions. Through numerous examples and proven practices, you will gain important insights into choosing a VPN solution, installing and configuring it, setting up routing, configuring firewalls, measuring performance, and much more. For many moons I've meant to set up an FTP server for stunnel.org. Not because I like FTP but because there are times even I find myself without a web browser of any kind. The server needs to support anonymous FTP and doesn't need to have the ability for anyone to have 'real' logins. The whole thing should be read-only, no write permissions. And as with everything I support, security is a must.
Linux Newbie Administrator
With older my RedHat Linux distribution (RH<7.1), setting up an ftp server could not be simpler-it just works out-of-box. This is because the ftp service is enabled on default as one of the standard services, in the file /etc/inetd.conf.The ":" is a field separator. The first field is the account (user) name "ftp", the "*" in the second field indicates that the password is disabled (nobody can login under the "ftp" user name), the user id is 14, group id is 50, "FTP User" is a comment, the home directory is /home/ftp, the last field is empty . Because this setup was already done for me by RedHat, anybody can ftp my computer and either login as a user (will be prompted for password and directed to his/her home directory), or login as "anonymous" and give his/her e-mail address as a password.
Security and Optimizing Linux
Various methods exist to configure your FTP servers. One is as a private user-only site, which is the default configuration for an FTP server; a private FTP server allows users on the Linux system only to be able to connect via FTP and access their files. Another method is to configure as an anonymous FTP server. An anonymous FTP server allows anyone on the network to connect to it and transfer files without having an account. Due to the potential security risk involved with this setup, precautions should be taken to allow access only to certain directories on the system.
The Linux Kernel Archives
The Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance. It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6.Linux is easily portable to most general-purpose 32- or 64-bit architectures as long as they have a paged memory management unit (PMMU) and a port of the GNU C compiler (gcc) (part of The GNU Compiler Collection, GCC). Linux has also been ported to a number of architectures without a PMMU, although functionality is then obviously somewhat limited.
Essentials for Using Linux FTP
This guide shares the basics of FTP and a number of unique ways to automate FTP updating and maintaining of files on a server. The tips include applying basic shell scripting and using text editors. In a recent article on Web Servers, I provided insights how to password protect your Website directories using the Apache overrides and .htaccess files. it is new article will focus exclusively on transferring files to your web server. My hope is that anyone who needs to use FTP on a regular basis will gain some insights to make their life easier. I will share tips regarding FTP and how to create files to automate FTP tasks to ensure you get everything done successfully.
Linux-ftpd-ssl FTP Server
The Linux-ftpd-ssl, which can be exploited by malicious users to compromise a vulnerable system. The vulnerability is caused due to the unsafe use of the "vsprintf()" function in the FTP server to generate replies in response to commands received from the FTP client. This causes a stack-based buffer overflow when the output of a command exceeds 2048 bytes. The vulnerability can be exploited by creating multiple levels of sub-directories with long names, and then issuing the "XPWD" command when at the lowest level sub-directory. The resulting path name that is generated in response the "XPWD" will exceed 2048 bytes, overflowing the stack-buffer.
Red Hot Linux 7 Unleashed
Linux distributions are install can be confusing. Relax. You have made the right choice in choosing Red Hat Linux. Nearly 60% of Linux installations either are Red Hat or based on Red Hat Linux. You also made the right choice in choosing Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed. This is latest edition of the best-selling book on Red Hat Linux. A whole new team of authors has been put together for this edition with the task of giving you all the details about installing, administering, and using the latest version of the newest and best alternative computer operating system for today's PCs. You'll find CD-ROMs in the back of this book that contain the latest version of Intel-based Red Hat Linux and all the software you'll need to get started.
Yum HOWTO: Setting up an FTP server
This is a HOWTO for Yum: the Yellowdog Updater, Modified. Yum is an automatic updater and package installer/remover for rpm-based systems. It automatically computes dependencies and figures out what things should occur in order to safely install, remove, and update rpm packages. Yum also efficiently and easily retrieves information on any package installed or available in a repository to the installer. Yum makes it easier to maintain groups of machines without having to manually update each one using rpm or other tools. Yum can manage package groups, multiple repositories, fallback repositories and more to permit centralized package management performed by just one or two individuals to scale over an entire organization.
FTP mini- HOW TO:FTP Server
The traditional FTP server is executed from inetd. The standard FTP port is port 21. When a user tries to log in, the FTP server uses a standard system call to check the user name and password against the entries in the system password file, or the NIS tables if you are using NIS. If the login is correct, the user is given access to the system. Anonymous FTP works differently. The user logs in with either the anonymous or the ftp username. He is then given access to a directory tree that has been chroot()'ed. This ensures that the user can not gain access to directory trees he is not authorized for. The chrooted directory tree usually contains a mock filesystem, with bin/, etc/, and lib/ directories. The files for download are usually put in the pub/ directory.
Active FTP vs. Passive FTP
There are One of the most commonly seen questions when dealing with firewalls and other Internet connectivity issues is the difference between active and passive FTP and how best to support either or both of them. Hopefully the following text will help to clear up some of the confusion over how to support FTP in a firewalled environment. This may not be the definitive explanation, as the title claims, however, I have heard enough good feedback and seen this document linked in enough places to know that quite a few people have found it to be useful. I am always looking for ways to improve things though, and if you find something that is not quite clear or needs more explanation . Recent additions to this document include the examples of both active and passive command line FTP sessions.
Replacing Windows NT Server with Linux
The Network Operating Systems (NOS) have many features and capabilities that allow the Information Systems departments of most organizations to better server your organization and help streamline work flow. Each NOS has different features and a excels in different areas. Traditionally, Novell Netware has been viewed as the best file/printer server, Unix was viewed as the premiere application and database server and recently, Windows NT has come in as a good choice for the smaller networks as a file/printer server or application server. The market has become very aggressive with each of these platforms branching out into each others market area. Microsoft has expanded NT into the midrange server market once dominated by Novell and is trying to get into the high end market which was once filled by Unix venders such as Sun, Hewlett Packard and Silicone Graphics.
Using a text base ftp client
Using a text based ftp client is not truly Linux specific, however there is a chance that you may need to download a file from an ftp server and don't want the overhead of installing a GUI based ftp client nor using a comparitively bloated webbrowser. Maybe you want to use some of the power and features available in a ftp client that for whatever reasons aren't supported in the webbrowsers.Most text based ftp clients, regardless of the operating system they run on, use the same command set that you type in to instruct the client on what it is you want it to do - generally speaking you should be able to learn how to use a text based ftp client once and use that knowledge many times.
Setting up a Linux-Base WAN
Linux Base WAN connect your Linux system to a local-area network or, via an Internet Service Provider, to the Internet. By doing so, you were able to access a plethora of services provided by others, including file transfers via FTP, web pages, email, and telnet. In this chapter you'll learn how to set up and use several Linux wide-area network servers, including an FTP server, a web server , an email (SMTP/POP) server, and a dial-in shell server. These applications let you and others access data on your Linux system from anywhere in the world via the Internet. These applications will be most useful if your system is connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But, even if your connection is intermittent, you and others can access the services these applications provide whenever the connection is active.
Deploying Web and FTP Server
The FTP servers are less prevalent in the current web browser driven Internet, they are still the primary method of distributing very large files and maintaining large stores of files. This section will demonstrate how to deploy an effective anonymous FTP server which modern web browsers will be able to access directly. As we said right at the beginning of the chapter, we will be installing the server developed by Washington University, WU-FTP.The Washington University File Transfer Protocol daemon is installed and ready for action. We can check the installation by typing ftp www.trampolining.net, or whatever your hostname/IP address is. You should be presented with a login screen, and you will be able to log in using a standard Linux user account and password set up on your system.
What is an FTP Server
The FTP- Stands for the File Transfer Protocol. FTP is a common way of transfering files across the Internet. By installing an FTP server, your users can transfer files to and from your Linux server. The /etc/ftpusers file contains a list of users who are not allowed to ftp into the machine. The /etc/ftphosts file contains a list of hosts that are not allowed to ftp into your machine. You can set up the FTP server to run in certain runlevels using the chkconfig tool. For example:
chkconfig -level 345 ftpd start
This command will start the FTP server in run levels 3,4, and 5
The Kermit FTP Client
FTP sessions are fully scriptable using Kermit's normal script programming language, which includes status indicators, user-defined and built-in variables, arrays, and functions; block structure, loops, decision-making, pattern matching, string operations, file i/o, integer and floating-point arithmetic, scoping, recursion, and all the rest, plus access to internal FTP protocol messages and codes. Previously, UNIX-based FTP clients could be automated only by cumbersome and error-prone methods such as piping commands into their standard input (which does not allow for testing results, decision-making, looping, etc), or Expect Scripts.
Linux Server Security
Linux consistently appears high up in the list of popular Internet servers, whether it's for the Web, anonymous FTP, or general services such as DNS and delivering mail. But security is the foremost concern of anyone providing such a service. Any server experiences casual probe attempts dozens of time a day, and serious break-in attempts with some frequency as well. This highly regarded book, originally titled Building Secure Servers with Linux, combines practical advice with a firm knowledge of the technical tools needed to ensure security. The book focuses on the most common use of Linux-as a hub offering services to an organization or the Internet-and shows readers how to harden their hosts against attacks. An all-inclusive resource for Linux users who wish to harden their systems, Linux Server Security covers general security such as intrusion detection and firewalling a hub, as well as key services such as DNS, the Apache Web server, mail, and secure shell.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
The vsftpd or Very Secure FTP Daemon is designed from the ground up to be fast, stable, and, most importantly, secure. Its ability to handle large numbers of connections efficiently and securely is why vsftpd is the only stand alone FTP distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The security model used by vsftpd has three primary aspects:
Strong separation of privileged and non-privileged processes-Separate processes handle different tasks, and each of these processes run with the minimal privileges required for the task.
Tasks requiring elevated privileges are handled by processes with the minimal privilege necessary- By leveraging compatibilities tasks that usually require full root privileges can be executed more safely from a less privileged process.
Most processes run in a chroot jail- Whenever possible, processes are change-rooted to the directory being shared; this directory is then considered a chroot jail.
Shorewall and FTP Protocol
The FTP transfers involve two TCP connections. The first control connection goes from the FTP client to port 21 on the FTP server. This connection is used for logon and to send commands and responses between the endpoints. Data transfers (including the output of �ls� and �dir� commands) requires a second data connection. The data connection is dependent on the mode. The client issues a PASV command. Upon receipt of this command, the server listens on a dynamically-allocated port then sends a PASV reply to the client. The PASV reply gives the IP address and port number that the server is listening on. The client then opens a second connection to that IP address and port number.

Linux Distributions

Fedora

RoseIndia.net Join Our Java News Group