Zpanel's proftpd can't create new ftp user (possibly after mysql update)

Question

Problem:

I used to create and delete ftp user accounts from Zpanel's "file > ftp accounts" with no problems ever. I tried to create a new account today and it all seems OK in zpanel, the UI returns "success", the account is listed in zpanel permanently but i just cannot connect to it. FTP Error 530.

System information:

• Cent os 6.6 (digitlocean vps)
• zpanel 10.1.1
• php 5.3.3
• mysql 5.6.22

Possibly:

I've remembered i did a mysql server update a few weeks ago and that I didn't manage any ftp accounts since. Looking in the zpanel_proftpd.ftpusers table I've noticed that the new ftp accounts are not being written into the table.

I also checked:

• that proftpd-mysql.conf has a proper user/pass for mysql access (root)
• mysql.user table has the root user and it is working, but besides the root and the ones I've created, there is only "postfix" inserted by zpanel installation. (are there any zpanel users missing?)
• enabled mysql's general_logging while creating ftp user but only queries are logged, not responses from mysql.
• enabled php logging but nothing there either, seems that zpanel works fine.

On the side note

• proftpd-mysql.conf has a part that seems to map fields to DB columns but the column names in the config file don't match the column names in the db. The thing is I dind't touch this file so I'm pretty sure they've never matched in the first place.
• proftpd auth.log contains only a notice of 530 for the new users, BUT also a lot of failed attempts from some sort of BF attack, further checked /var/log/secure and there it is, a failed login attempt on sshd with username "root" every second.

How to proceed ?

Before i start downgrading mysql or debugging some zpanel code I don't even know where to look for, I would like to get some answers.

If possible, a solution from someone who experienced this already but if not any of the following might help me pinpointing the problem:

Can I somehow see the DB response on zpanel queries upon ftp user creation?

Furthermore why zpanels notification window says "user created successfully" ?

How come zpanel keeps listing the newly created users if it doesn't find a user row in the database ? Did I wrongly assume that proftpd's user system functions like this ? are the proftpd users created somewhere else ? AuthUserFile does not exists but still all of the old users ftp accounts function properly.

where in the zpanel directory do I look for a php model that is processing ftp user creation?

Can all that suspicious log activity have anything to do with blocking ftpd somehow ?

I hope all the info helps. Thank you.

Answer 1

Answer:

The answer is that after updating to mysql 5.6 the installation created another my.cnf (/usr/my.cnf) which had sql_mode set to strict parameters (comment it out or change params). In the same time zpanel is logging every operation to a sql table writing down a dateformat string in a column and because of the sql_mode this was failing and consequentially aborting the rest of the queries.

side note

all the activity in the logs was due to this XOR.DDoS menace from China described here: http://blog.malwaremustdie.org/2014/09/mmd-0028-2014-fuzzy-reversing-new-china.html

my way to the solution started with "fail2ban" ...