What is vsftpd or Very Secure FTP Daemon

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The File Transfer Protocol or FTP is a protocol used to access files on servers from private computer networks or the Internet. FTP has been used since 1985 and is now widely used. Many FTP servers around the world allow you to connect to them anywhere on the Internet, and files placed on them are then transferred (uploaded or downloaded).

Very Secure FTP Daemon does not bring significant changes here; it only helps to make files more accessible with a more friendly interface than FTP applications. FTP is one of the oldest and most common methods of sending files over the Internet. This article shows you how to install and configure the Very Secure FTP Daemon (vsftpd), which is the FTP base server that ships with most Linux distributions.

You can quickly find out if vsftpd is installed on your system by entering the following command from a shell prompt:
rpm -q vsftpd

If vsftpd was installed, the package version is displayed. If not, the message vsftpd package is not installed is displayed.

If vsftpd is not installed, you can install it by following these steps:

1. Choose System → Administration → Add/Remove Software.

This calls the Add/Remove Software program. Type vsftpd into the search box and click Find. It locates the vsftp package.

2. Select the Very Secure Ftp Daemon package and click Apply. Add/Remove Software installs the vsftp package.

3. Close the Add / Remove Software program. The vsftp package is now installed.

You can start the vsftpd service from a terminal window by typing this command:

/etc/init.d/vsftpd start

To restart the service, use this command:

/etc/init.d/vsftpd restart

Characteristics:
vsftpd, Very Secure FTP Daemon, is an FTP server licensed under GPL. The default FTP server is installed on some distributions like Fedora, CentOS, or RHEL.

Benefits:

1. Fewer resources
2. Pass the user-level restriction setting
3. Allows the setting of restrictions based on source IP address
4. Pass encrypted communication using SSL
5. Designed for UNIX systems with a focus on security
6. Implementation of the principle of least privilege
7. Principle of distrust: each application process implements just what is needed; other processes do the rest and CPI mechanisms are used.
8. Chroot: change the root directory to a vacuum where no damage can occur.
9. Work with the network is accomplished by a process that works in a “chroot jail”
10. Privileged operations are carried out by a parent process (the code is as small as possible)
11. “Disbelief” to library calls
12.Implementation of a directory listing utility (/ bin / ls)
13. External library flags are embedded in their own file for easier detection of security issues

This short tutorial is not nearly complete – it’s just a start for configuring a minimal FTP server. Of course, all sorts of problems can occur along the way, depending on the distribution,  configuration, all these shortcomings can be resolved by using Google, for we are certainly not the first and the last to hit those issues.

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Ilias spiros
By Ilias spiros

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