[vox-tech] WU-FTPd question

[Troy Arnold]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 07:33:40PM -0800, Thomas Wieglenda wrote:
> Thanks for the answer on having the devel tools loaded.  As soon as I got
> those, it worked like a champ.  Now on to a new question...
> 
> I am trying to setup guest user accounts with wu-ftpd, and I completed all
> of the steps outlined in the wu-ftpd FAQ area.  I've added my user, made the
> password, chrooted them, chmoded their user area and adjusted the ftpaccess
> file accordingly.  But, when I try to logon to the FTP using the <username>
> and <password>  I get an error saying that the password isn't correct.  Now,
> I know that I'm typing in the correct password and I've verified that many
> times, but it still won't work.  I CAN logon to the account via  a real user
> account, but I can't logon with a guest user.  Any ideas?
> 

Yeah, don't waste any more time configuring/learning Wu-Ftpd.  If at all
possible, you should be using scp or sftp.  If you *must* run an ftpd,
don't use wu-ftpd.  It has a history of nasties (exploits) and many
knowledgeable people seem to think there are more waiting.
Read this:
http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/security/ftp-daemons

I'm not sure if Rick keeps it up to date, but at one time it was a nice
appraisal of the various ftpd's.

To try and answer your question:
1) Do you need to tell ftpd to re-read its config files?  The easiest
   way is to restart the service.
2) Check the log files.
3) You should be getting a generic login failure which should not give
   you enough info to determine whether the "password is wrong" or the
   "user is wrong" (that would let bad people guess valid usernames)
   So, rather than a bad password, your failed login probably indicates
   that ftpd does not know about your new user.  Does your new user need
   a valid shell?  Is her shell listed in /etc/shells? 

I probably should have waited for someone with more wu-ftpd experience
to answer, but I'm avoiding work. :)

-troy