Yury Stanev
Reputation: 25
Can't access EC2 instance running VSFTP from Filezilla
Following this article with slight modifications to /etc/vsftpd.conf, I've setup VSFTP on a laptop running Ubuntu 20.04, after configuring port forwarding on the router I was able to connect to it though FileZilla to transfer files. Contents of vsftpd.conf are below.
listen=NO
listen_ipv6=YES
anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
use_localtime=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty
pam_service_name=vsftpd
rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
ssl_enable=NO
pasv_enable=Yes
pasv_min_port=10000
pasv_max_port=10100
allow_writeable_chroot=YES
virtual_use_local_privs=YES
I'm trying to replicate the above setup on AWS EC2 instance running Ububtu Server 20.04, following this article.
I've set the inbound rules for the security group as follows:
I've skipped step 6 from the article as I don't have Apache running on this instance.
The contents of the vsftpd.conf are bellow:
# Example config file /etc/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.
#
#
# Run standalone? vsftpd can run either from an inetd or as a standalone
# daemon started from an initscript.
listen=NO
#
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. By default, listening
# on the IPv6 "any" address (::) will accept connections from both IPv6
# and IPv4 clients. It is not necessary to listen on *both* IPv4 and IPv6
# sockets. If you want that (perhaps because you want to listen on specific
# addresses) then you must run two copies of vsftpd with two configuration
# files.
listen_ipv6=YES
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Disabled by default).
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=022
#
# 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
#
# If enabled, vsftpd will display directory listings with the time
# in your local time zone. The default is to display GMT. The
# times returned by the MDTM FTP command are also affected by this
# option.
use_localtime=YES
#
# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
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
#
# You may override where the log file goes if you like. The default is shown
# below.
#xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log
#
# If you want, you can have your log file in standard ftpd xferlog format.
# Note that the default log file location is /var/log/xferlog in this case.
#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 restrict local users to their home directories. See the FAQ for
# the possible risks in this before using chroot_local_user or
# chroot_list_enable below.
#chroot_local_user=YES
#
# 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().
# (Warning! chroot'ing can be very dangerous. If using chroot, make sure that
# the user does not have write access to the top level directory within the
# chroot)
chroot_local_user=YES
allow_writeable_chroot=YES
#chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#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
#
# Customization
#
# Some of vsftpd's settings don't fit the filesystem layout by
# default.
#
# This option should be the name of a directory which is empty. Also, the
# directory should not be writable by the ftp user. This directory is used
# as a secure chroot() jail at times vsftpd does not require filesystem
# access.
secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty
#
# This string is the name of the PAM service vsftpd will use.
pam_service_name=vsftpd
#
# This option specifies the location of the RSA certificate to use for SSL
# encrypted connections.
rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
ssl_enable=NO
#
# Uncomment this to indicate that vsftpd use a utf8 filesystem.
#utf8_filesystem=YES
pasv_enable=YES
pasv_min_port=1024
pasv_max_port=1048
pasv_address=123.345.678.9 # just a placeholder
The service is up and running:
● vsftpd.service - vsftpd FTP server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2021-04-28 16:53:26 UTC; 14min ago
Process: 15294 ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /var/run/vsftpd/empty (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 15305 (vsftpd)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 1160)
Memory: 664.0K
CGroup: /system.slice/vsftpd.service
└─15305 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd.conf
The instance has an elastic ip assigned to it. When I try to connect to the instance from FileZilla the connection times out. I've tried to ping the EC2 instance, but had no luck, the rule in the policy should allow it. And the firewall is disabled on this EC2 instance.
➜ ~ ping -c 10 123.345.678.9
PING 123.345.678.9 (123.345.678.9) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- 3.98.100.5 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 9216ms
[email protected]:~$ sudo ufw status
Status: inactive
Below is the output of journalctl -u vsftpd.service.
-- Logs begin at Wed 2021-04-28 14:45:49 UTC, end at Wed 2021-04-28 16:54:37 UTC. --
Apr 28 15:13:53 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:13:53 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:29:02 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopping vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:29:02 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Succeeded.
Apr 28 15:29:02 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopped vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:29:02 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:29:02 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:29:02 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 28 15:29:02 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 28 15:29:31 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:29:31 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:29:31 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 28 15:29:31 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 28 15:33:09 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:33:09 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:33:09 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 28 15:33:09 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 28 15:35:52 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:35:52 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:47:37 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopping vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:47:37 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Succeeded.
Apr 28 15:47:37 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopped vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:47:37 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:47:37 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:47:37 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 28 15:47:37 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 28 15:48:32 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:48:32 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:53:48 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopping vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:53:48 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Succeeded.
Apr 28 15:53:48 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopped vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:53:48 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:53:48 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:55:32 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopping vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:55:32 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Succeeded.
Apr 28 15:55:32 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopped vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:55:32 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:55:32 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:56:08 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopping vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:56:08 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Succeeded.
Apr 28 15:56:08 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopped vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:56:08 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:56:08 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:58:42 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopping vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:58:42 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Succeeded.
Apr 28 15:58:42 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopped vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 15:58:42 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 15:58:42 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 16:06:16 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopping vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 16:06:16 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Succeeded.
Apr 28 16:06:16 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Stopped vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 16:06:16 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 16:06:16 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 16:06:16 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 28 16:06:16 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 28 16:08:43 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 16:08:43 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
Apr 28 16:08:43 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 28 16:08:43 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: vsftpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 28 16:53:26 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Apr 28 16:53:26 ip-172-31-30-90 systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.
The messages with Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT are the result of service failing to start when used the config file at the top of this question.
I'm not sure what's preventing me from connecting to it via FileZilla. I appreciate the help.
Upvotes: 0
Views: 580
Answers (1)
Yury Stanev
Reputation: 25
Turns out I've set the rules to the wrong security groups. After locating the security group associated with this EC2 instance and setting the rules there everything worked. I'm able to ping the machine and connect to it.
Upvotes: 1
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