FTP user creation in EC2 Instance - Ubuntu/Linux

Create FTP user for VSFTPD (Very Secure File Transfer Protocol Daemon) server

Prerequisites

• AWS console access
• EC2 Instance access

Let’s start

• We need to install VSFTPD package if you have already installed then you can skip the installation steps.

Amazon Linux?and?CentOS

sudo yum install vsftpd -y        

Ubuntu?and?Debain

sudo apt install vsftpd -y        

• Now we need to modify the configuration file created by vsftpd as below
• You can get the conf file at /etc/vsftpd/vfstpd.conf in?Amazon linux and Centos
• And for?Ubuntu and Debian?the conf file is located at /etc/vsftpd.conf
• Once you get the file location you can edit the using vi or vim editor as below

sudo vi /etc/vsftpd.conf        

• Change the variables in the conf file as needed for your environment

anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=NO
xferlog_std_format=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
allow_writeable_chroot=YES
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
listen=YES
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd/user_list
userlist_deny=NO
listen_port=8021
pasv_enable=YES
pasv_min_port=8000
pasv_max_port=8050
pasv_addr_resolve=YES
pasv_address=yourdomain.com - replace it with our domain        

Important:

The default FTP port is 21. I have configured the custom FTP port?8021?in the above configuration file. You can configure the value of your own choice and make sure you that you listen_port is not commented and set connect_from_port_20 to NO. And also verify that the port that you are using is also active in your?firewall?and added in the?Security Groups.

• Now Run the following command to add the FTP use

sudo adduser --home /home/usr_1 usr_1        

Note: usr_1 is the username I have created. You can use of your choice

• Run the following command to create a password for the user:

sudo passwd usr_1        

?

Run the following command to change the ownership of the?/home/usr_1 file. This command makes usr_1 the file owner.

sudo chown usr_1:usr_1 -R /home/usr_1/        

?

Run the following command to add the new user to the?vsftpd user_list. Use the?-a?flag to append to the file.

Amazon Linux 2 and CentOS

sudo echo "usr_1" | sudo tee -a /etc/vsftpd/user_list        

Debian and Ubuntu

Run the following command to create the userlist file and add the new user to the file:

sudo echo "usr_1" | sudo tee -a /etc/vsftpd.userlist        

Restart the vsftpd service:

sudo systemctl restart vsftpd        

Connect to the FTP server.