Anonymous FTP FAQ

Version: 3.00

How to Set up a Secure Anonymous FTP Site

The following is a FAQ on setting up a secure FTP Site. FTP sites are known for much
abuse by transferring illegal files. They also open many oppurtunities for intruders to gain
access via misconfigured setups. And lastly many versions of ftp servers have had
security holes. This FAQ is intended to clean up this abuse by allowing administrators to
go through this check list of steps to make sure their FTP is correctly configured and that
they are running the most current ftp daemon.

This is organized in the following fashion, I am breaking into several parts as follows:

1. General Description of Setting up an "Anonymous" FTP server.

2. Setting up a chrooted Secure Anonymous FTP server.
3. OS Specific needed information and suggestions.
o Older SVR2 and SVR3 system, RTU 6.0 (Masscomp, now Concurrent
Real Time UNIX), and AT&T 3B1 and 3B2 machines
o HPUX
o Solaris 2.x
o SunOS
4. Where to get other FTP daemons
5. How to Know if your Anonymous FTP Server is Secure
6. Archie

1. General Description of Setting up an "anonymous" ftp server.

1. Create the user ftp in /etc/passwd. Use a misc group. The user's home directory
will be ~ftp where ~ftp is the root you wish anonymous users to see. Creating this
user turns on anonymous ftp.

Use an invalid password and user shell for better security. The entry in the passwd
file should look something like:

ftp:*:400:400:Anonymous FTP:/home/ftp:/bin/true

2. Create the home directory ~ftp. Make the directory owned by root (NOT ftp) with
the same group as ftp. Thus, owner permissions are for root and group
permissions are for the anonymous users. Set the permissions for ~ftp to 555
(read, nowrite, execute).
 Warning: Some MAN pages recommend making the ~ftp directory owned by ftp.
This is a big NO-NO, if you want any type of security on your system.

3. Create the directory ~ftp/bin. This directory is owned by root (group e.g. wheel)
with permissions 111 (noread, nowrite, execute).
4. Copy the program ls into ~ftp/bin. ls is owned by root with permissions 111
(noread, nowrite, execute). Any other commands you put in ~ftp/bin should have
the same permissions as well.
5. Make the directory ~ftp/etc. This directory is owned by root with permissions 111.
6. Create from scratch the files /etc/passwd and /etc/group in ~ftp/etc. These files
should be mode 444. The passwd file should only contain root, daemon, uucp, and
ftp. The group file must contain ftp's group. Use your /etc/passwd and /etc/group
files as a template for creating passwd and group files going to ~ftp/etc. You may
even change the user names in this file, they are used only for 'ls' command. So
for example if all files in your ~ftp/pub/linux hierarchy will be maintained by a
real user 'balon' with uid=156 you may put

linux:*:156:120:Kazik Balon::

in the ~ftp/etc/passwd file (regardless of his real username). Leave only these
users who will own files under ftp hierarchy (e.g. root, daemon, ftp...) and
definitely remove *ALL* passwords by replacing them with '*' so the entry looks
like:

root:*:0:0:Ftp maintainer::
ftp:*:400:400: Anonymous ftp::

For more security, you can just remove ~ftp/etc/passwd and ~ftp/etc/group (the
effect is that ls -l will not show the directories' group names). Wuarchive ftp
daemon (and some others) have some extensions based on the contents of the
group/passwd files, so read the appropriate documentation.

7. Make the directory ~ftp/pub. This directory is owned by you and has the same
group as ftp with permissions 555. On most systems (like SunOS) you may want
to make this directory 2555, ie. set-group-id, in order to create new files with the
same group ownership.

Files are left here for public distribution. All folders inside ~ftp/pub should have
the same permissions as 555.

Warning: Neither the home directory (~ftp) nor any directory below it should be
owned by ftp! No files should be owned by ftp either. Modern ftp daemons
support all kinds of useful commands, such as chmod, that allow outsiders to
undo your careful permission settings. They also have configuration options like
the following (WuFTP) to disable them:
 # all the following default to "yes" for everybody

delete no guest,anonymous # delete

permission?

overwrite no guest,anonymous # overwrite

permission?

rename no guest,anonymous # rename

permission?

chmod no anonymous # chmod

permission?

umask no anonymous # umask

permission?

8. If you wish to have a place for anonymous users to leave files, create the directory
~ftp/pub/incoming. This directory is owned by root with permissions 733. Do a
'chmod +t ~ftp/pub/incoming'. The ftp daemon will normally not allow an
anonymous user to overwrite an existing file, but a normal user of the system
would be able to delete anything. By setting the mode to '1733' you prevent this
from happening. In wuftpd you may configure the daemon to create new files
with permissions '600' owned by root or any other user. Many times, incoming
directories are abused by exchanging pirated and pornographic material. Abusers
often create hidden directories there for this purpose. Making the incoming
directory unreadable by anonymous ftp helps to some extent. With ordinary ftp
severs there is no way to prevent directories being created in incoming. The
WUarchive ftp server can limit uploads to certain directories and can restrict
characters used in file names like this:
9.
10.# specify the upload directory information
11.
12.upload /var/spool/ftp * no
13.
14.upload /var/spool/ftp /incoming yes ftp staff
0600 nodirs
15.
16.
17.
18.# path filters
# path-filter...
19.
20.path-filter anonymous /etc/msgs/pathmsg ^[-A-Za-z0-9_\.]*$
^\. ^-
21.
22.path-filter guest /etc/msgs/pathmsg ^[-A-Za-z0-9_\.]*$
^\. ^-
23.
Suggestion: Create an extra file-system for your ftp-area (or at least for your
incoming-area) to prevent a denial-of-service attack by filling your disk with
garbage (inside your incoming directory).

If you have wuftpd you may want to add some ftp extensions like
compression/decompression 'on the fly' or creation of tar files for the directory
hierarchies. Get the appropriate sources (gzip, gnutar, compress), compile them
and link statically, put in the ~ftp/bin directory and edit the appropriate file
containing the definitions of the allowed conversions. /usr/bin/tar is already
statically-linked. You may wish to use gnu tar anyway.

Gary Mills wrote a small program to support the following:

To do tar and compress, he wrote a tiny program called `pipe', and statically-
linked it. His /etc/ftpconversions file looks like this:

#strip prefix:strip postfix:addon prefix:addon postfix:external

command:

#types:options:description

:.Z: : :/bin/compress -d -c %s:T_REG|

T_ASCII:O_UNCOMPRESS:UNCOMPRESS

:-z: : :/bin/compress -d -c %s:T_REG|

T_ASCII:O_UNCOMPRESS:UNCOMPRESS

: : :.Z:/bin/compress -c %s:T_REG:O_COMPRESS:COMPRESS

: : :.tar:/bin/tar cf - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_TAR:TAR

: : :.tar.Z:/bin/pipe /bin/tar cf - %s | /bin/compress -c:

T_REG|T_DIR:O_COMPRESS|O_TAR:TAR+COMPRESS

: : :.tar:/bin/gtar -c -f - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_TAR:TAR

: : :.tar.Z:/bin/gtar -c -Z -f - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_COMPRESS|
O_TAR:TAR+COMPRESS

: : :.tar.gz:/bin/gtar -c -z -f - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_COMPRESS|
O_TAR:TAR+GZIP

Here it is:

-----------------8<-------------cut---------------

/* pipe.c: exec two commands in a pipe */

#define NULL (char *)0

#define MAXA 16

main(argc, argv) int argc; char *argv[]; {

char *av1[MAXA], *av2[MAXA];

int i, n, p[2], cpid;

i = 0; n = 0;

while ( ++i < argc && n < MAXA ) {

if ( *argv[i] == '|' && *(argv[i]+1) == '\0' ) break;

av1[n++] = argv[i];

if ( n == 0 ) uexit();

av1[n] = NULL;

n = 0;

while ( ++i < argc && n < MAXA )

av2[n++] = argv[i];

if ( n == 0 ) uexit();

av2[n] = NULL;

if ( pipe(p) != 0 ) exit(1);

if ( ( cpid = fork() ) == (-1) ) exit(1);

else if ( cpid == 0 ) {

(void)close(p[0]);

(void)close(1);

(void)dup(p[1]);

(void)close(p[1]);

(void)execv(av1[0], av1);

_exit(127);
 }

else {

(void)close(p[1]);

(void)close(0);

(void)dup(p[0]);

(void)close(p[0]);

(void)execv(av2[0], av2);

_exit(127);

/*NOTREACHED*/

uexit() {

(void)write(2, "Usage: pipe | \n", 34);

exit(1);

-------- CUT HERE ------------

24. Other things to do:

as root:

touch ~ftp/.rhosts
touch ~ftp/.forward
chmod 400 ~ftp/.rhosts
chmod 400 ~ftp/.forward

ie. make these files zero-length and owned by root.

Due to the last /bin/mail bugs in SunOS:

touch /usr/spool/mail/ftp; chmod 400 /usr/spool/mail/ftp

Consider an email-alias for the ftp-admin(s) to provide an email-address for

problems-reports.
 If you are mounting some disks from other machines (or even your own) to the
~ftp hierarchy, mount it read-only. The correct entry for the /etc/fstab (on the host
with ftpd) is something like:

other:/u1/linux /home/ftp/pub/linux nfs ro,noquota,nosuid,intr,bg 1 0

This mounts under /home/ftp/pub/linux the disk from host 'other' with no quota,
no 'suid' programs (just in case), interruptible (in case 'other' goes down) and 'bg' -
so if 'other' is down when you reboot it will not stop you trying to mount
/home/ftp/pub/linux all over again.

2. Setting up a chrooted Secure Anonymous ftp server.

This part was contributed by Marcus J Ranum <mjr@tis.com>

1. Build a statically linked version of ftpd and put it in ~ftp/bin. Make sure it's
owned by root.
2. Build a statically linked version of /bin/ls if you'll need one. Put it in ~ftp/bin. If
you are on a Sun, and need to build one, there's a ported version of the BSD net2
ls command for SunOs on ftp.tis.com: pub/firewalls/toolkit/patches/ls.tar.Z Make
sure it's owned by root.
3. Chown ~ftp to root and make it mode 755 THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT
4. Set up copies of ~ftp/etc/passwd and ~ftp/etc/group just as you would normally,
EXCEPT make 'ftp's home directory '/' -- make sure they are owned by root.
5. Write a wrapper to kick ftpd off and install it in /etc/inetd.conf The wrapper
should look something like: (assuming ~ftp = /var/ftp)
6.
7. main()
8.
9. {
10.
11.if(chdir("/var/ftp")) {
12.
13. perror("chdir /var/ftp");
14.
15. exit(1);
16.
17.}
18.
19.if(chroot("/var/ftp")) {
20.
21. perror("chroot /var/ftp");
22.
23. exit(1);
24.
25.}
26.
27./* optional: seteuid(FTPUID); */
28.
 29.execl("/bin/ftpd","ftpd","-l",(char *)0);
30.
31.perror("exec /bin/ftpd");
32.
33.exit(1);
34.
35.}
36.

Options:

You can use 'netacl' from the toolkit or tcp_wrappers to achieve the same effect.

We use 'netacl' to switch so that a few machines that connect to the FTP service
*don't* get chrooted first. This makes transferring files a bit less painful.

You may also wish to take your ftpd sources and find all the places where it calls
seteuid() and remove them, then have the wrapper do a setuid(ftp) right before the
exec. This means that if someone knows a hole that makes them "root" they still
won't be. Relax and imagine how frustrated they will be.

If you're hacking ftpd sources, I suggest you turn off a bunch of the options in
ftpcmd.y by unsetting the "implemented" flag in ftpcmd.y. This is only practical if
your FTP area is read-only.

37. As usual, make a pass through the FTP area and make sure that the files are in
correct modes and that there's nothing else in there that can be executed.
38. Note, now, that your FTP area's /etc/passwd is totally separated from your real
/etc/passwd. This has advantages and disadvantages.
39. Some stuff may break, like syslog, since there is no /dev/log. Either build a
version of ftpd with a UDP-based syslog() routine or run a second syslogd based
on the BSD Net2 code, that maintains a unix-domain socket named ~ftp/dev/log
with the -p flag.

REMEMBER:

If there is a hole in your ftpd that lets someone get "root" access they can do you
some damage even chrooted. It's just lots harder. If you're willing to hack some
code, making the ftpd run without permissions is a really good thing. The correct
operation of your hacked ftpd can be verified by connecting to it and (while it's
still at the user prompt) do a ps-axu and verify that it's not running as root.

3. OS Specific needed information and suggestions.

These machines may need dev/tcp:

 • Older SVR2 and SVR3 system
• RTU 6.0 (Masscomp, now Concurrent Real Time UNIX),
• AT&T 3B1 and 3B2 machines

[dev/tcp]

These ftpd implementations may require a ~ftp/dev/tcp in order for anonymous ftp to
work.

You have to create a character special device with the appropriate major and minor device
numbers. The appropriate major and minor numbers of ~ftp/dev/tcp are what the major
and minor numbers of /dev/tcp are.

The ~ftp/dev is a directory and ~ftp/dev/tcp is a character special device. Make them
owned and grouped by root. Permissions for ~ftp/dev is root read/write/exec and other &
group read and exec. The permissions for ~ftp/dev/tcp is root read/write, other & group
read.

HPUX

[Logging] If you're using HP's native ftpd, the line in /etc/inetd.conf should execute ftpd
-l, which does extra logging.

Solaris 2.x

[Script] Solaris' man page contains a script for installing anonymous ftpd which saves
time. You may still want to check over your anonymous ftpd for vulnerabilities.

Command for reading the man page is:

$ man ftpd

SunOS

[Libraries] To set up SunOS to use its shared dynamic libraries, follow these steps:

1. Create the directory ~ftp/usr. This directory is owned by root with permissions
555.
2. Create the directory ~ftp/usr/lib. This directory is owned by root with permissions
555.
3. Copy the runtime loader ld.so into ~ftp/usr/lib for use by ls. ld.so is owned by root
with permissions 555.
4. Copy the latest version of the shared C library, libc.so.* into ~ftp/usr/lib for use
by ls.

libc.so.* is owned by root with permissions 555.

 Note: 4.1.2(or above) users: you also need to copy /usr/lib/libdl.so.* to ~ftp/lib.

5. Create the directory ~ftp/dev. This directory is owned by root with permissions
111.
6. ~ftp/dev/zero is needed by the runtime loader. Move into the directory ~ftp/dev
and create it with the command:

mknod zero c 3 12

chown ~ftp/dev/zero to root. Make sure it's readable.

Warning: For novices: Don't try to copy /dev/zero to ~ftp/dev/zero! This is an

endless file of zeroes and it will completely fill your filesystem!

7. If you want to have the local time showing when people connect, create the
directory ~ftp/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo and copy /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/localtime
8. If you are bothered by the need for copying your libraries so that you can use
Sun's 'ls', which is dynamically linked, you can try to get a statically linked copy
of 'ls' instead. The CD-ROM that contains Sun's OS has a statically-linked version
of ls. In this case, you can dispense with steps #6-8.

Statically linked versions may be available from the following sources:

If you want a statically linked "ls" get the GNU fileutils off a archive site near you
and statically link it.

[Logging] Sun's standard ftpd logs *all* password information. To correct it,
install patch:

101640-03 SunOS 4.1.3: in.ftpd logs password info when -d

option is

used.

In /etc/inetd.conf find the line that starts with "ftp". At the end of that line, it
should read "in.ftpd". Change that to "in.ftpd -dl". In /etc/syslog.conf, add a line
that looks like:

daemon.* /var/adm/daemonlog

The information can be separated (or like SunOs4.1.1 does not recognize
daemon.* so it requires the following form), such as:
 daemon.info
/var/adm/daemon.info

daemon.debug
/var/adm/daemon.debug

daemon.err /var/adm/daemon.err

Note that the whitespace between the two columns must include at least one TAB
character, not just spaces, or it won't work. Of course your log file could be
anything you want. Then, create the logfile (touch /var/adm/daemonlog should
do). Finally, restart inetd and syslogd, either individually, or by rebooting the
system. You should be good to go. If you do not install the patch, make sure the
log file is owned by root and mode 600, as the ftp daemon will log *everything*,
including users' passwords.

Warning: You want to make all logs root only readable for security reasons If a
user mistypes his password for his username, it could be compromised if anyone
can read the log files.

4. Where to get other FTP daemons

• Wuarchive FTP 2.4- A secure FTP daemon that allows improved access-control,
logging, pre-login banners, and is very configurable:

Can be ftp'd from ftp.uu.net in "/networking/ftp/wuarchive-ftpd" directory. Be

certain to verify the checksum information to confirm that you have retrieved a
valid copy. [Warning: Older versions of Wu-FTP are extremely insecure and in
some cases have been trojaned.]

BSD SVR4

File Checksum Checksum MD5 Digital

Signature

----------------- -------- ---------

--------------------------------

wu-ftpd-2.4.tar.Z 38213 181 20337 362

cdcb237b71082fa23706429134d8c32e

patch_2.3-2.4.Z 09291 8 51092 16

5558a04d9da7cdb1113b158aff89be8f
 • For DECWRL ftpd, sites can obtain version 5.93 via anonymous FTP from
gatekeeper.dec.com in the "/pub/misc/vixie" directory.
•
• BSD SVR4
•
• File Checksum Checksum MD5 Digital
Signature
•
• ----------------- -------- ---------
--------------------------------
•
• ftpd.tar.gz 38443 60 1710 119
ae624eb607b4ee90e318b857e6573500
•
• For BSDI systems, patch 005 should be applied to version 1.1 of the BSD/386
software. You can obtain the patch file via anonymous FTP from ftp.bsdi.com in
the "/bsdi/patches-1.1" directory.
•
• BSD SVR4
•
• File Checksum Checksum MD5 Digital
Signature
•
• ----------------- -------- ---------
--------------------------------
•
• BU110-005 35337 272 54935 543
1f454d4d9d3e1397d1eff0432bd383cf
•
•
•
• Public Domain Sources:

ftp.uu.net ~ftp/systems/unix/bsd-sources/libexec/ftpd
gatekeeper.dec.com ~ftp/pub/DEC/gwtools/ftpd.tar.Z

5. How to Know if your Anonymous FTP Server is Secure

This section is intended for the administrator to go down a small check list of things to
make sure his server is not easily compromised.

1. Check to make sure your ftp server does not have SITE EXEC command by
telneting to port 21 and typing SITE EXEC. If your ftp daemon has SITE EXEC
make sure it is the most current version (ie, Wu-FTP 2.4). In older versions this
allows anyone to gain shell via port 21.
2. Check to make sure no one can log in and make files or directories in the main
directory. If anyone can log in as anonymous FTP and make files such as .rhosts
and .forward, instant access is granted to any intruder.
3. Check to make sure the main directory is NOT owned by ftp. If it is owned by
FTP, an intruder could SITE CHMOD 777 the main directory and then plant files
to give him instant access. SITE CHMOD command should be removed because
anonymous users do not need any extra priviledges.
4. Check to make sure NO files or directories are owned by ftp. If they are, it is
possible an intruder could replace them with his own trojan versions.
5. There were several bugs in old daemons, so it is very important to make sure you
are running the most current ftp daemons.

6. Archie

Searches FTP sites for programs. Login into these sites as archie or use client
software for faster access. To get your own anonymous site added to Archie's
search list, e-mail archie-updates@bunyip.com.

archie.ac.il 132.65.20.254 (Israel server)

archie.ans.net 147.225.1.10 (ANS server, NY

(USA))

archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australian

Server)

archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.11.3 (United Kingdom

Server)

archie.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at 140.78.3.8 (Austrian Server)

archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.102 (Finnish Server)

archie.internic.net 198.49.45.10 (AT&T server, NY

(USA))

archie.kr 128.134.1.1 (Korean Server)

archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp 130.54.20.1 (Japanese Server)

archie.luth.se 130.240.18.4 (Swedish Server)

archie.ncu.edu.tw 140.115.19.24 (Taiwanese server)

archie.nz 130.195.9.4 (New Zealand

server)

archie.rediris.es 130.206.1.2 (Spanish Server)

 archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (Rutgers
University (USA))

archie.sogang.ac.kr 163.239.1.11 (Korean Server)

archie.sura.net 128.167.254.195 (SURAnet server

MD (USA))

archie.sura.net(1526) 128.167.254.195 (SURAnet alt. MD

(USA))

archie.switch.ch 130.59.1.40 (Swiss Server)

archie.th-darmstadt.de 130.83.22.60 (German Server)

archie.unipi.it 131.114.21.10 (Italian Server)

archie.univie.ac.at 131.130.1.23 (Austrian Server)

archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (U. of Nebraska,

Lincoln (USA))

archie.univ-rennes1.fr (French Server)

archie.uqam.ca 132.208.250.10 (Canadian Server)

archie.wide.ad.jp 133.4.3.6 (Japanese Server)