500 OOPS: vsftpd: refusing to run with writable anonymous root

[jastanle64]

I get the following error when trying to log into a CentOS 5.7 vsftpd server from my Windows Vista machine with FireFTP using the ftp user and anonymous user:

500 OOPS: vsftpd: refusing to run with writable anonymous root

I was wondering if my vsftpd.conf file is setup correctly. Here is the vsftpd.conf file configuration:

# Example config file /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
#
# The default compiled in settings are fairly paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
# Please see vsftpd.conf.5 for all compiled in defaults.
#
# READ THIS: This example file is NOT an exhaustive list of vsftpd options.
# Please read the vsftpd.conf.5 manual page to get a full idea of vsftpd's
# capabilities.
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=YES
#
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
local_umask=022
anon_root=/var/ftp/pub/incoming
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
anon_upload_enable=YES
#
#
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
#
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES
#
# The target log file can be vsftpd_log_file or xferlog_file.
# This depends on setting xferlog_std_format parameter
xferlog_enable=YES
#
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
chown_uploads=YES
chown_username=ftp
#
# The name of log file when xferlog_enable=YES and xferlog_std_format=YES
# WARNING - changing this filename affects /etc/logrotate.d/vsftpd.log
#xferlog_file=/var/log/xferlog
#
# Switches between logging into vsftpd_log_file and xferlog_file files.
# NO writes to vsftpd_log_file, YES to xferlog_file
xferlog_std_format=YES
#
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
#
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
#
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
#
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
#
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that on some FTP servers, ASCII support allows a denial of service
# attack (DoS) via the command "SIZE /big/file" in ASCII mode. vsftpd
# predicted this attack and has always been safe, reporting the size of the
# raw file.
# ASCII mangling is a horrible feature of the protocol.
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
#
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
#ftpd_banner=Welcome to blah FTP service.
#
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd/banned_emails
#
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
#chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
chown_uploads=YES
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES
#
# When "listen" directive is enabled, vsftpd runs in standalone mode and
# listens on IPv4 sockets. This directive cannot be used in conjunction
# with the listen_ipv6 directive.
listen=YES
#
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. To listen on IPv4 and IPv6
# sockets, you must run two copies of vsftpd with two configuration files.
# Make sure, that one of the listen options is commented !!
#listen_ipv6=YES

Here are the permissions on the /var/ftp tree:

ll /var
total 208
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 Oct 30 17:58 account
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root   4096 Oct 30 18:25 cache
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 May 11  2011 crash
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root   4096 Oct 30 17:58 db
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root   4096 Oct 30 18:00 empty
dr-xr-xr-x  4 ftp  ftp    4096 Dec 28 21:59 ftp
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 May 11  2011 games
drwxrwx--T  2 root gdm    4096 Dec 28 21:56 gdm
drwxr-xr-x 33 root root   4096 Oct 30 19:12 lib
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 May 11  2011 local
drwxrwxr-x  6 root lock   4096 Dec 29 04:02 lock
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root   4096 Dec 29 04:03 log
drwx------  2 root root  16384 Oct 30 17:52 lost+found
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     10 Oct 30 17:54 mail -> spool/mail
drwxr-x---  5 root named  4096 Nov 17 17:22 named
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 May 11  2011 nis
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 May 11  2011 opt
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 May 11  2011 preserve
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 Aug 25  2010 racoon
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root   4096 Dec 30 00:41 run
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root   4096 Oct 30 18:22 spool
drwxrwxrwt  2 root root   4096 Dec 29 22:29 tmp
drwx------  2 root root   4096 Jan  6  2007 tux
drwxr-xr-x  8 root root   4096 Oct 20 17:05 www
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root   4096 Oct 30 18:00 yum

ll /var/ftp
total 12
drwxrwxrwx 2 ftp ftp 4096 Dec 28 21:59 incoming
drwxr-xr-x 4 ftp ftp 4096 Dec 29 23:40 pub

ll /var/ftp/pub
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 ftp ftp 4096 Dec 29 23:40 incoming
drwxr-xr-x 3 ftp ftp 4096 Dec 29 23:27 upload

Any help would be appreciated.

[HROAdmin26]

Did you put the error in Google?

ll /var/ftp/pub
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 ftp ftp 4096 Dec 29 23:40 incoming
drwxr-xr-x 3 ftp ftp 4096 Dec 29 23:27 upload

[spg666]

"did you put the error in google" is not very helpful is it?

I had a similar problem. It seem that if you set non-root write permissions on the folder defined by anon_root=/var/ftp/pub/incoming you'll get this error.

The solution it to define the root folder with anon_root=/var/ftp/pub/ then set the permissions on your incoming folder so that it is rw by everyone.

[HROAdmin26]

is not very helpful is it

It is when you click on the link.

And...paste into Google - 12000 hits - this is not a unique message. Google is your friend.