vsftpd installation not working on virtual server as of 14.04

Question

The process I have used for installing vsftpd since 12.04 no longer works. I get the error stop: Unknown instance when restarting the service. I believe this means the configuration is wrong, but I cannot track down the issue. I'm having this problem on a virtual server.

Additionally, running sudo vsftpd results in 500 OOPS: munmap as noted by @Beltran.

---

1. Acquire root privileges

   sudo -s
   

2. Install vsftpd and libpam-pwdfile

   apt-get install vsftpd libpam-pwdfile
   

3. Edit vsftpd.conf

   mv /etc/vsftpd.conf /etc/vsftpd.conf.bak
   vim /etc/vsftpd.conf
   

   Copy and paste the following lines.

   allow_writeable_chroot=YES
   anonymous_enable=NO
   chroot_list_enable=YES
   chroot_local_user=YES
   guest_enable=YES
   guest_username=vsftpd
   hide_ids=YES
   listen=YES
   local_enable=YES
   local_umask=022
   local_root=/var/clients/$USER
   nopriv_user=vsftpd
   pasv_address=127.0.0.1
   pasv_enable=YES
   pasv_min_port=65000
   pasv_max_port=65100
   port_enable=YES
   user_sub_token=$USER
   seccomp_sandbox=NO
   virtual_use_local_privs=YES
   write_enable=YES
   

4. Register virtual admin

   apt-get install apache2-utils
   mkdir /etc/vsftpd
   htpasswd -cd /etc/vsftpd/ftpd.passwd admin
   vim /etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
   

   Add 1 line for the admin user

   admin
   

5. Configure PAM

   mv /etc/pam.d/vsftpd /etc/pam.d/vsftpd.bak
   vim /etc/pam.d/vsftpd
   

   Copy and paste these 2 lines.

   auth required pam_pwdfile.so pwdfile /etc/vsftpd/ftpd.passwd
   account required pam_permit.so
   

6. Create a local user without shell access

   useradd --home /home/vsftpd --gid nogroup -m --shell /bin/false vsftpd
   

7. Create root directory and give local user proper access.

   mkdir /var/clients
   chmod -R 755 /var/clients
   chown -R vsftpd:nogroup /var/clients
   

8. Register jailed virtual users (initially, I skip this step)

   htpasswd -d /etc/vsftpd/ftpd.passwd {user_name}
   mkdir /var/clients/{user_name}
   

9. Restart service

   service vsftpd restart
   

Answer 1

Ubuntu 14.04 uses user sessions which was absent in 12.04, so service is looking at the user session, not the system session, and your user isn't running vstfpd(root is). So, you will need to specify --system when you use service to start, stop or check the status of a service.

vsftpd is a soft-link to upstart, so you won't be able to run it as an unprivileged user, you will need to be root to start or stop or check the status of such a process.

Doing an ls -l on /etc/init.d/vsftpd reveals:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 May 16  2013 /etc/init.d/vsftpd -> /lib/init/upstart-job*

which is similar to cron, resolvconf and a few more, which are all upstart jobs and need to be root to be started or stopped.

Upstart is an event-based replacement for the /sbin/init daemon which handles starting of tasks and services during boot, stopping them during shutdown and supervising them while the system is running.

These services are usually started on boot. See here for more on upstart:

• What is upstart

Refer man page of upstart if you want even more!

So, long story short, to start, stop, check status, you need to be root. You can do that as follows:

sudo service vsftpd {start|stop|status|restart}

and enter your password or use:

service vsftpd {start|stop|status|restart} --system

Answer 2

Enable trusty-proposed in your software sources and re-install vsftpd. I'm checking if this passes muster.

If you don't wish to enable proposed in your sources vsftpd source and builds are available on this page. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/+source/vsftpd/3.0.2-1ubuntu2.14.04.1

Answer 3

If you're receiving this issue on an AWS EC2 instance, you should try creating the instance with HVM virtualization instead of the Paravirtual.

If you still desire a paravirtual instance, there no telling when the bug will be fixed as it is a bug in the Xen kernal, which is used to run virtualization for AWS.

Here is the bug thread addressing this issue in more detail: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vsftpd/+bug/1313450

Answer 4

Still new to Ubuntu. Had it working on Ubuntu 12.4 with no hassles but on Ubuntu 14.04, this is what i did:

in the /etc/vsftpd.conf file add these 2 lines:

allow_writeable_chroot = YES
seccomp_sandbox = NO

Change the value of pam_service_name to ftp.

Hope this helps someone

Answer 5

This worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04. Ifthe user is jailed within /var/www/html/kofi_site directory then simply run:

sudo chmod ugo-w /var/www/html/kofi_site