VSFTP with Explicit SSL Log in problem

[haythame78]

Hi All

I have set up a Linux redhat server to work as a VSFTP server using the passive mode

i have generated a self-signed certificate using the following command:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.key -out /vsftpd/vsftpd.pem

i have tried connecting via coreFTP and WINSCP and both seemigly failed to log in with no apparent error message

coreftp log:

Connect socket #1380 to ###, port 21...
220 Welcome to The UAT FTPS service.  
AUTH SSL  
234 Proceed with negotiation.  
TLSv1, cipher TLSv1/SSLv3 (DES-CBC3-SHA) - 168 bit
USER testP  
331 Please specify the password.  
PASS **********

the server does not seem to respond, or at least this is what i think. to double-check i entered a wrong a password and it actually came back with an error message of incorrect login.

WINSCP comes back with a different error:

SSL3 alert write: fatal: protocol version
Disconnected from server
Connection failed.
Please specify the password.

The server log file vsftpd.log does not give much info either

Wed Aug 31 14:33:49 2011 [pid 31520] CONNECT: Client "#.#.#.#"
Wed Aug 31 14:33:49 2011 [pid 31520] FTP response: Client "#.#.#.#", "220 Welcome to ### FTPS service."
Wed Aug 31 14:33:49 2011 [pid 31520] FTP command: Client "#.#.#.#", "AUTH SSL"
Wed Aug 31 14:33:49 2011 [pid 31520] FTP response: Client "#.#.#.#", "234 Proceed with negotiation."
Wed Aug 31 14:33:51 2011 [pid 31520] FTP command: Client "#.#.#.#", "USER testP"
Wed Aug 31 14:33:51 2011 [pid 31520] [testP] FTP response: Client "#.#.#.#", "331 Please specify the password."
Wed Aug 31 14:33:51 2011 [pid 31520] [testP] FTP command: Client "#.#.#.#", "PASS <password>"
Wed Aug 31 14:33:51 2011 [pid 31519] [testP] OK LOGIN: Client "#.#.#.#"

as can be seen from the server log, after logging in the server doers not respond.

Bear in mind that both of the server firewall and SELINUX are disabled.

i have been trying to look for a solution and searching the internet for almost a full day but with no luck

your help is greatly appreciated thanks

Please find below the the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file

 # Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=NO
#
# 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=007
#
# 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=whoever
#
# 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
log_ftp_protocol=YES
#
# Switches between logging into vsftpd_log_file and xferlog_file files.
# NO writes to vsftpd_log_file, YES to xferlog_file
xferlog_std_format=NO
#
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
idle_session_timeout=300
#
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
data_connection_timeout=300
#
# 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 The UAT FTPS 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_local_user=YES
chroot_list_enable=YES

chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
# 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
use_localtime=yes
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES
ssl_enable=YES
allow_anon_ssl=NO
force_local_logins_ssl=YES
force_local_data_ssl=YES
ssl_tlsv1=YES
ssl_sslv2=YES
ssl_sslv3=YES
rsa_cert_file=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.key
pasv_enable=YES
#pasv_promiscuous=YES
pasv_min_port=#####
pasv_max_port=#####
pasv_address=#.#.#.#
max_per_ip=3
max_login_fails=2
delay_failed_login=7

[haythame78]

i managed to find the solution

i forgot to generate an empty /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list when I set up the vsftpd

The server is setup so that all users are chroot’d into their home directory unless their username is present in this file, /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list

What was happening is that after the successful authentication of the FTP user, the VSFTPD starts looking in the chroot_list file which was not present, so the serevr ends up frozen

it would have really helped if the FTP server and/or clients came back with a useful error message

[oz]

Glad you figured it out... your solution might help someone else, so thanks for posting back with it!