[vox-tech] FTP folder access question

[Nicole Carlson]

Up spake Ehrhart, Jay on Fri, May 30, 2003 at 12:26:25PM -0700:
> I have loaded a server with Red Hat 8.0.  I installed Pure-FTPD.  Using
> WSFTP client I login and am in my home folder.  The user I am using is
> in the adm and root groups.
> I cannot navigate out of the home folder.  I specify which folder I want
> to login into in WSFTP and it still drops me in my home folder. I
> created a test folder under the root directory and gave myself all
> permissions and set WSFTP to put me there and I end up in my home
> folder.  I can't type in the path in WSFTP and get any where.  WSFTP
> says the folder does not exist.  I tried var and etc and it says folders
> do not exist.
> How do I set this up so I can move up from my home folder and get to
> other folders?  What am I doing wrong?

This is going to sound unhelpful, but why do you WANT to access your root 
directory via FTP?  FTP is an insecure protocol (password transmitted in 
plain text), and if YOU can change important things, then so can bad guys who 
sniff your password.  I *strongly* recommend the use of ssh (secure shell) 
to muck around in your important directories remotely.  It's not a panacea, 
but it's WAY more secure.

On to your problem.  What you're seeing is FTP's chroot'ing feature--when 
the daemon starts up, it's given a directory that it thinks is root.  It 
can't navigate out of it.  This is generally thought of as a GOOD thing.  
That's why you can't see files you know are there--you're not where you 
think you are, you're in a fake '/'.

ssh! ssh!  SSH!

--n twn

***
"First you prove the problem is impossible, and then you solve 
it."--cryptography professor
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