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https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-setup-sftp-server-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux

How to setup SFTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

18 April 2020 by Korbin Brown

In this guide, we will show you how to setup an SFTP server using VSFTPD on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. If you haven’t already, check out our tutorial on How to setup FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa with VSFTPD, as this article on SFTP assumes that you’ve applied the configuration covered in the FTP guide.

FTP is a great protocol for accessing and transferring files, but it has the shortcoming of being a clear text protocol. In other words, it’s not secure to use over an internet connection, since your credentials and data are transmitted without encryption. The ‘S’ in SFTP stands for ‘Secure’ and tunnels the FTP protocol through SSH, providing the encryption needed to establish a secure connection.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install and configure SSH daemon
  • How to setup an SFTP user account and group
  • How to connect to SFTP server via command line
  • How to connect to SFTP server via command line

 

How to setup SFTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

 

How to setup SFTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

CategoryRequirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
SystemInstalled or upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa
SoftwareVSFTPD, SSH daemon
OtherHave VSFTPD installed and configured as covered in How to setup FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Bionic Beaver with VSFTPDPrivileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Configure SSH daemon

  1. SFTP requires SSH, so if SSH server is not already installed on your system, install it with the following command:

    $ sudo apt install ssh

  2. Once SSH is installed, we need to make some changes to the SSHD configuration file. Use nano or your favorite text editor to open it:

    $ sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

  3. Scroll to the bottom of the file and add the following 5 lines at the very end:

    Match group sftp
ChrootDirectory /home
X11Forwarding no
AllowTcpForwarding no
ForceCommand internal-sftp

    SSH configuration file

     

    SSH configuration file

    The lines above will allow users in the sftp group to access their home directories via SFTP, but denies them normal SSH access, so they can never access a shell. After pasting those lines, save and close the configuration file.

  4. Restart the SSH service for these new changes to take effect:

    $ sudo systemctl restart ssh

Create SFTP user account

Now we need to create user accounts for anyone that we wish to grant SFTP access to.

  1. Create a new user group called

    sftp

    . All of our SFTP users will need to belong to this group.

    $ sudo addgroup sftp
Adding group `sftp' (GID 1002) ...
Done.

  2. Next, create a new user. We’ll simply call ours

    sftpuser

    in this example. Also be sure to add this user to the

    sftp

    group.

    $ sudo useradd -m sftpuser -g sftp

  3. Set a password for the newly created

    sftpuser

    :

    $ sudo passwd sftpuser
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: password updated successfully

  4. Lastly, let’s grant full access to the user on their own home directory, but deny access to the directory for all other users on the system:

    $ sudo chmod 700 /home/sftpuser/

Our SFTP configuration is complete; now we can login to make sure everything is working properly.

Login to SFTP using command line

You can login via SFTP with either the hostname or IP address of your system. To test from the same system as the one you just configured SFTP on, connecting to the loopback address 127.0.0.1 will work just fine.

  1. Open a

    terminal

    and login using the

    sftp

    command:

    $ sftp sftpuser@127.0.0.1
The authenticity of host '127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:9HZflwSB64J+SELGLczOuv3f06gT/3ZaZAOezVZn2XQ.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '127.0.0.1' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
sftpuser@127.0.0.1's password: 
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
sftp>

  2. Navigate to the user’s home directory, since that’s the only place it has permissions. In here, try making a new directory to confirm that everything is working as intended:

    sftp> cd sftpuser
sftp> mkdir sftp-test
sftp> ls
sftp-test          
sftp>

Login to SFTP using GUI

If you prefer to use a GUI application to connect to your SFTP server, there are lots of options available. You can use your preferred SFTP client or the one built into Ubuntu by default – the Nautilus file manager.

  1. Open Nautilus file manager from within the Applications menu.

  2. Click on “Other Locations” and enter sftp://127.0.0.1 in the “Connect to server” box at the bottom of the window and click connect.

    3. Connect to SFTP server with Nautilus

     

    Connect to SFTP server with Nautilus

  3. Enter the SFTP account’s credentials that we setup earlier and click connect.

    4. How to setup SFTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

     

    Enter SFTP account credentials to connect

  4. Upon a successful connection, you’ll be able to open your home directory and see the test directory you created earlier.

    5. Successful connection to SFTP server

     

    Successful connection to SFTP server

Conclusion

In the FTP Server article, we saw how to use VSFTPD to create an FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. We also covered how to use the command line and Ubuntu GUI to connect to the FTP server.

In this article, we saw how to secure the FTP protocol by setting up SFTP on our system. By following the instructions in this guide, computers on your local network or across the internet can securely access your system to store and retrieve files, either via the command line or their preferred SFTP client.

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-setup-ftp-server-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux

How to setup FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

21 April 2020 by Korbin Brown

In this guide, we will show you how to setup an FTP server using VSFTPD on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa.

VSFTPD is a popular choice for setting up FTP servers, and is the default FTP tool on a few Linux distributions. Follow along with us below to find out how to install the application and get your FTP server up and running.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install and configure VSFTPD
  • How to setup an FTP user account
  • How to connect to FTP server via command line
  • How to connect to FTP server via GUI

 

How to setup FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

 

How to setup FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

 

 

CategoryRequirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
SystemInstalled or upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa
SoftwareVSFTPD
OtherPrivileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

VSFTPD installation

  1. First, install VSFTPD on your system by typing this command into the

    terminal

    :

    $ sudo apt-get install vsftpd

Configure FSFTPD server

  1. It’s always best practice to keep a backup copy of the original config file, just in case something goes wrong later. Let’s rename the default config file:

    $ sudo mv /etc/vsftpd.conf /etc/vsftpd.conf_orig

  2. Create a new VSFTPD configuration file using nano or whichever text editor you prefer:

    $ sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf

  3. Copy the following base configuration into your file. This configuration will suffice for a basic FTP server, and can later be tweaked for the specific needs of your environment once you’ve verified this is working properly:

    listen=NO
listen_ipv6=YES
anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
use_localtime=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty
pam_service_name=vsftpd
rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
ssl_enable=NO
pasv_enable=Yes
pasv_min_port=10000
pasv_max_port=10100
allow_writeable_chroot=YES

    Paste the above lines into your newly created /etc/vsftpd.conf file, and then save changes and close the file.

    VSFTPD configuration file

     

    VSFTPD configuration file

     

     

  4. Ubuntu’s built-in firewall will block FTP traffic by default, but the following command will create an exception in UFW to allow the traffic:

    sudo ufw allow from any to any port 20,21,10000:10100 proto tcp

  5. With the configuration file saved and the firewall rules updated, restart VSFTPD to apply the new changes:

    $ sudo systemctl restart vsftpd

Create an FTP user

Our FTP server is ready to receive incoming connections, so now it’s time to create a new user account that we’ll use to connect to the FTP service.

  1. Use this first command to create a new account called

    ftpuser

    , and the second command to set a password for the account:

    $ sudo useradd -m ftpuser
$ sudo passwd ftpuser
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: password updated successfully

  2. In order to verify that everything’s working properly, you should store at least one file in

    ftpuser

    ‘s home directory. This file should be visible when we login to FTP in the next steps.

    $ sudo bash -c "echo FTP TESTING > /home/ftpuser/FTP-TEST"

NOTE FTP is not an encrypted protocol, and should only be used for accessing and transferring files on your local network. If you plan to accept connections from over the internet, it’s recommended that you configure an SFTP server for additional security.

Connect to FTP server via CLI

  1. You should now be able to connect to your FTP server either by IP address or hostname. To connect from

    command line

    and verify that everything is working,

    open a terminal

    and use Ubuntu’s

    ftp

    command to connect to your loopback address (127.0.0.1).

    $ ftp 127.0.0.1
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.3)
Name (127.0.0.1:user1): ftpuser
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
-rw-r--r--    1 0        0              12 Mar 04 22:41 FTP-TEST
226 Directory send OK.
ftp>

    Your output should look like the text above, indicating a successful login and a ls command that reveals our test file we created earlier.

Connect to FTP server via GUI

You can also connect to your FTP server by GUI, if you prefer. There are many options for FTP clients, but the Nautilus file manager is a viable option that’s installed by default in Ubuntu. Here’s how to use it to connect to your FTP server:

  1. Open Nautilus file manager from within the Applications menu.

  2. Click on “Other Locations” and enter ftp://127.0.0.1 in the “Connect to server” box at the bottom of the window and click connect.

    3. Connect to FTP server with Nautilus

     

    Connect to FTP server with Nautilus

     

     

  3. Enter the FTP account’s credentials that we setup earlier and click connect.

    4. How to setup FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

     

    Enter FTP credentials

     

     

  4. Upon a successful connection, you’ll see the test file you created earlier.

    5. Successful connection to FTP server

     

    Successful connection to FTP server

     

     

Conclusion

In this article, we saw how to use VSFTPD to create an FTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. We also covered how to use the command line and Ubuntu GUI to connect to the FTP server.

By following this guide, computers on your local network can access your system to store and retrieve files, either via the command line or their preferred FTP client.

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