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ProFTPD module mod_dso
ProFTPD module mod_dso
What are DSO modules?
"On modern Unix derivatives there exists a nifty mechanism usually called
dynamic linking/loading of Dynamic Shared Objects (DSO) which provides
a way to build a piece of program code in a special format for loading it at
run-time into the address space of an executable program.
This loading can usually be done in two ways: Automatically by a system program
called ld.so when an executable program is started, or manually
from within the executing program via a programmatic system interface to the
Unix loader through the system calls dlopen()/dlsym().
In the first way the DSO's are usually called shared libraries or
DSO libraries and named libfoo.so or
libfoo.so.1.2. They reside in a system directory (usually
/usr/lib/) and the link to the executable program is established
at build-time by specifying -lfoo to the linker command. This
hard-codes library references into the executable program file so that at
start-time the Unix loader is able to locate libfoo.so in
/usr/lib/, in paths hard-coded via linker-options like
-R or in paths configured via the environment variable
LD_LIBRARY_PATH. It then resolves any (yet unresolved) symbols in
the executable program which are available in the DSO.
Symbols in the executable program are usually not referenced by the DSO
(because it's a reusable library of general code) and hence no further
resolving has to be done. The executable program has no need to do anything on
its own to use the symbols from the DSO because the complete resolving is done
by the Unix loader. (In fact, the code to invoke ld.so is part of
the run-time startup code which is linked into every executable program which
has been bound non-static.) The advantage of dynamic loading of common library
code is obvious: the library code needs to be stored only once, in a system
library like libc.so, saving disk space for every program.
In the second way the DSO's are usually called shared objects or
DSO files and can be named with an arbitrary extension (although the
canonical name is foo.so). These files usually stay inside a
program-specific directory and there is no automatically established link to
the executable program where they are used. Instead the executable program
manually loads the DSO at run-time into its address space via
dlopen(). At this time no resolving of symbols from the DSO for
the executable program is done. Instead the Unix loader automatically resolves
any (yet unresolved) symbols in the DSO from the set of symbols exported by the
executable program and its already loaded DSO libraries (especially all symbols
from the ubiquitous libc.so). This way the DSO gets knowledge of
the executable program's symbol set as if it had been statically linked with
it in the first place."
(Taken from http://httpd.apache.org/docs/dso.html)
The mod_dso module is ProFTPD's module for handling the dynamic
loading of modules. This module is contained in the mod_dso.c
file for ProFTPD 1.3.x, and is not compiled by default. Installation
instructions are discussed here.
The most current version of mod_dso can be found in the
ProFTPD source distribution:
http://www.proftpd.org/
Directives
Control Actions
Syntax: LoadFile path
Default: None
Context: server config
Module: mod_dso
Compatibility: 1.3.0rc1 and later
The LoadFile directive is used to load any shared object
(.so file extension), such as shared libraries. On some
platforms, it may be necessary to load all of the libraries needed by
a DSO module, using LoadFile, prior to loading the module itself.
The path parameter must be the absolute path to the shared object
to load.
Example:
# Load the zlib library
LoadFile /usr/lib/libz.so
Syntax: LoadModule name
Default: None
Context: server config
Module: mod_dso
Compatibility: 1.3.0rc1 and later
The LoadModule directive is used to dynamically load a module
from the configuration file.
Example:
LoadModule mod_test.c
Syntax: ModuleControlsACLs actions|all allow|deny user|group list
Default: None
Context: server config
Module: mod_dso
Compatibility: 1.3.0rc1 and later
The ModuleControlsACLs directive configures access lists of
users or groups who are allowed (or denied) the ability to
use the actions implemented by mod_dso. The default
behavior is to deny everyone unless an ACL allowing access has been explicitly
configured.
If "allow" is used, then list, a comma-delimited list
of users or groups, can use the given actions; all
others are denied. If "deny" is used, then the list of
users or groups cannot use actions all others are
allowed. Multiple ModuleControlsACLs directives may be used to
configure ACLs for different control actions, and for both users and groups.
The actions provided by mod_dso are "insmod"
"lsmod", and "rmmod".
Example:
# Allow only user root to load and unload modules, but allow everyone
# to see which modules have been loaded
ModuleControlsACLs insmod,rmmod allow user root
ModuleControlsACLs lsmod allow user *
Syntax: ModuleOrder ...
Default: None
Context: server config
Module: mod_dso
Compatibility: 1.3.0rc1 and later
The ModuleOrder directive can be used to explicitly set the
module order. Note: do not use this directive unless you know what
you are doing. It is very easy to configure a non-working server with
this directive.
If you are going to use ModuleOrder, make sure it is
the very first directive in your proftpd.conf file.
Example:
# Make this one the very first things, if you're going to use it.
ModuleOrder \
mod_core.c \
mod_cap.c \
mod_auth_unix.c \
mod_auth_pam.c \
mod_ls.c \
mod_log.c \
mod_site.c \
mod_xfer.c \
mod_auth.c \
mod_ifsession.c \
mod_auth_file.c
Syntax: ModulePath path
Default: None
Context: server config
Module: mod_dso
Compatibility: 1.3.0rc1 and later
The ModulePath directive is used to configure an alternative
directory from which mod_dso will load DSO modules. By
default, mod_dso uses $prefix/libexec/,
where $prefix is where you installed proftpd,
e.g. /usr/local/.
The path parameter must be an absolute path.
Example:
ModulePath /etc/proftpd/libexec
Control Actions
Syntax: ftpdctl insmod module
Purpose: Load a DSO module
The insmod control action can be used to load a DSO module
into the running proftpd daemon.
A module cannot be loaded multiple times.
Example:
ftpdctl rmmod mod_test.c
ftpdctl: 'mod_test.c' loaded
Syntax: ftpdctl lsmod
Purpose: Display list of all loaded modules
The lsmod control action is used to display a list of all
loaded modules.
Example:
ftpdctl lsmod
ftpdctl: Loaded Modules:
ftpdctl: mod_core.c
ftpdctl: mod_xfer.c
ftpdctl: mod_auth_unix.c
ftpdctl: mod_auth_file.c
ftpdctl: mod_auth.c
ftpdctl: mod_ls.c
ftpdctl: mod_log.c
ftpdctl: mod_site.c
ftpdctl: mod_dso.c
ftpdctl: mod_ctrls.c
ftpdctl: mod_auth_pam.c
ftpdctl: mod_cap.c
Syntax: ftpdctl rmmod module
Purpose: Unload a DSO module
The rmmod control action can be used to unload a DSO module
from the running proftpd daemon. Note that it is also
possible to "unload" one of the statically-linked modules; this
does not remove that module from the process' memory space, but does remove
that module from the core engine, such that proftpd will
act as if the module is not present.
Example:
ftpdctl rmmod mod_test.c
ftpdctl: 'mod_test.c' unloaded
Note that mod_dso's control actions are only available if
your proftpd has been compiled with Controls support.
The mod_dso module is distributed with ProFTPD. To enable use
of DSO modules, use the --enable-dso configure option:
$ ./configure --enable-dso
$ make
$ make install
This option causes mod_dso to be compiled into
proftpd.
Logging
The mod_dso module supports trace logging, via the module-specific log channels:
Thus for trace logging, to aid in debugging, you would use the following in
your proftpd.conf:
TraceLog /path/to/ftpd/trace.log
Trace dso:20
This trace logging can generate large files; it is intended for debugging use
only, and should be removed from any production configuration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: When I try to start proftpd, it
fails like this:
proftpd[1234]: mod_dso/0.5: module 'mod_radius.c' already loaded
proftpd[1234]: Fatal: LoadModule: error loading module 'mod_radius.c': Operation not permitted on line 9 of '/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf'
How do I fix this "module already loaded" error?
Answer: This happens when the proftpd configuration
either a) uses the LoadModule
on a module which was compiled in as a static module, or b) is
inadvertently using LoadModule on the same module multiple times.
To check if the module has been statically compiled into your
proftpd executable, use the -l command-line parameter,
e.g.:
# proftpd -l
Compiled-in modules:
mod_core.c
mod_xfer.c
mod_auth_unix.c
mod_auth_file.c
mod_auth.c
mod_ls.c
mod_log.c
mod_site.c
mod_delay.c
mod_facts.c
mod_dso.c
mod_ident.c
mod_auth_pam.c
mod_tls.c
mod_cap.c
The modules listed via the command are the static modules. So if your
LoadModule directive is used for one of the modules in this list,
you can remove that LoadModule directive; that module will already
be loaded.
The other cause, that of having multiple LoadModule directives
for the same module, usually happens when your proftpd.conf
file includes other config files, e.g.:
Include /path/to/modules.conf
and it is those other config files which have LoadModule directives
of their own.
If you find yourself needs to change the configuration to work around this
error, you can use the following to see if the module has already been
loaded, and if not, load it:
<IfModule !mod_radius.c>
LoadModule mod_radius.c
</IfModule>
Question: When I try to start proftpd, it
fails like this:
proftpd[1234]: mod_dso/0.5: module 'mod_ctrls.c' already loaded
proftpd[1234]: Fatal: LoadModule: error loading module 'mod_ctrls.c': Operation not permitted on line 9 of '/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf'
I do not have any other LoadModule directives in my config, nor
is the mod_ctrls module in my --with-modules
configure option.
Answer: In this particular case, the
mod_ctrls module is automatically compiled in, as a static module,
when the --enable-ctrls configure option is used. There are only
a few such modules with this special handling:
mod_ctrls (via the --enable-ctrls configure option)
mod_dso (via the --enable-dso configure option)
mod_lang (via the --enable-nls configure option)
mod_memcache (via the --enable-memcache configure option)
All of these modules would appear in the `proftpd -l' static
module list.
Question: If I use prxs to compile a module like mod_ldap, which is already
built into my proftpd as a static module, and then I use:
LoadModule mod_ldap.c
in my proftpd.conf, then which mod_ldap code is used,
the static module or the shared module?
Answer: Excellent question. The short answer is: the
static module wins.
When mod_dso goes to load a module, it first checks to see
whether that module is already loaded -- and if so, the module will
not be loaded again. Static modules, by definition, are always
"already loaded". This means that your mod_ldap shared module
code would not be loaded, and thus would not override the static module.
Question: I try to start my proftpd
instance, but it fails to start with this error:
Fatal: ModulePath: /usr/lib/proftpd is world-writable on line 7 of '/etc/proftpd/modules.conf'
Why?
Answer: The mod_dso module, used by
ProFTPD for DSO/shared modules, ensures that the
ModulePath directory is secure. DSO
modules are code that are loaded directly into proftpd; loading
these modules from a world-writable directory means that any system user
could inject/replace any of those DSO modules with their own code, and get
proftpd to do whatever they wanted. Thus mod_dso
will refuse to use a world-writable directory for loading of modules.
To fix this, you simply need to ensure that the ModulePath directory is not world-writable, e.g.:
$ chmod o-w /usr/lib/proftpd
© Copyright 2004-2017 TJ Saunders
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