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ProFTPD: Running by Nonroot User
ProFTPD: Running as a Nonroot User
Occasionally, one might want to run ProFTPD on a system where root privs
are not available to you as a user. It is still possible to setup a
functioning FTP server without root privileges. There are a few catches
and special considerations for this, however.
Here are the configuration directives that you will need to use in order
to run the server without root privileges:
Port
This needs to be a number greater than 1023. Lower number ports require
root privileges in order for the process to bind to that address. This
will also mean that clients wishing to contact your server will need to
know the port on which it is listening. Most FTP clients connect to the
standard FTP port (21).
Example:
Port 20021
AuthUserFile, AuthGroupFile
In order to authenticate users, by default the server looks in
/etc/passwd for account information, and in
/etc/shadow for the password. Comparing stored passwords
requires root privileges, which this nonroot-running daemon will not have.
You can get around this requirement by supplying your own passwd (and
possibly group) files via the AuthUserFile and
AuthGroupFile directives. Make sure the permissions on your
custom files allow for the daemon to read them (but hopefully not other
users).
Example:
AuthUserFile /path/to/custom/ftpd.passwd
AuthGroupFile /path/to/custom/ftpd.group
AuthPAM
PAM authentication requires root privileges. This directive will need
to be set off.
Example:
AuthPAM off
PidFile
This directive will need to be used to cause the server to write its PID
to some file writable by the user.
Example:
PidFile /home/bob/ftpd/proftpd.pid
ScoreboardFile
This directive will need to be used to cause the server to write its
scoreboard to some file writable by the user.
Example:
ScoreboardFile /home/bob/ftpd/proftpd.scoreboard
WtmpLog
Logging to wtmp files requires root privileges. While it is
not strictly necessary for this directive to be set to off, failure
to do so will result in server log messages like:
host.domain.net (localhost[127.0.0.1]) - wtmpx /var/adm/wtmpx: Permission denied
Example:
WtmpLog off
User, Group
The ability to switch the identity of the server process to those configured
by the User and
Group directives requires, of course, root privileges. It is best to
configure User to be your username, and Group to
be the name of your primary group (which is usually the first group listed
by the groups command).
Example:
User bob
Group bob
Note that other configuration directives will be affected by the lack of
root privileges: DefaultRoot will not work, nor will
<Anonymous> sections, nor UserOwner.
Basically any operation that requires root privileges will be disabled.
If using the SystemLog directive, make sure the file to which the
server is to log can be written to by the configured daemon User
or Group.
The daemon should now start successfully. Complaints about not being able
to switch UIDs and such will be logged, but the daemon should still function
properly.
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