vsftpd with google cloud compute engine for ftp users

There is so many articles to connect sFTP to Google cloud but nothing for FTP for google cloud.

Commands that I have used.

Edit the vsftpd configuration file and uncomment the bellow lines. Use vim or nano. The lines that are not present in the conf file, put them at the bottom.

# vim /etc/vsftpd.conf

listen=YES
listen_ipv6=NO
anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
nopriv_user=vsftpd
chroot_local_user=YES
allow_writeable_chroot=yes
guest_username=vsftpd
virtual_use_local_privs=YES
guest_enable=YES
user_sub_token=$USER
local_root=/var/www/$USER
hide_ids=YES

# Exclude this if you are doing this guide on your own private server
seccomp_sandbox=NO 

Next, we should modify our /etc/pam.d/vsftpd file to check the users/passwords file that we are about to create.

First, create a backup of the file and then edit the existing one:

# cp /etc/pam.d/vsftpd{,.bak}

# vim /etc/pam.d/vsftpd

Remove everything from the file and add these lines instead:

auth required pam_pwdfile.so pwdfile /etc/ftpd.passwd
account required pam_permit.so

Create the main user that will be used by the virtual users to authenticate:

# useradd --home /home/vsftpd --gid nogroup -m --shell /bin/false vsftpd

Once that is done we can create our users/passwords file.
Note: The passwords used by this method can be up to 8 characters long. If you wish vsftpd to read stronger passwords you might want to search for a different pam module.

# htpasswd -cd /etc/ftpd.passwd rosetest1

Add another user and append it to the ftpd.passwd file. The -c flag is omitted here.

# htpasswd -d /etc/ftpd.passwd rosetest2

Next, add the directories for the users since vsftpd will not create them automatically.

## For rosetest1
# mkdir /var/www/rosetest1
# chown vsftpd:nogroup /var/www/rosetest1
# chmod +w /var/www/rosetest1

## For rosetest2
# mkdir /var/www/rosetest2
# chown vsftpd:nogroup /var/www/rosetest2
# chmod +w /var/www/rosetest2

Finally, start the vsftp daemon and set it to automatically start on system boot.

# systemctl start vsftpd && systemctl enable vsftpd

Check the status to make sure the service is started:

# systemctl status vsftpd
● vsftpd.service - vsftpd FTP server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2016-12-03 11:07:30 CST; 23min ago
Main PID: 5316 (vsftpd)
CGroup: /system.slice/vsftpd.service
├─5316 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd.conf
├─5455 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd.conf
└─5457 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd.conf

vsftpd.conf file contents.

# 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

#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

listen=YES

listen_ipv6=NO

anonymous_enable=NO

local_enable=YES

write_enable=YES

local_umask=022

nopriv_user=vsftpd

chroot_local_user=YES

allow_writeable_chroot=yes

guest_username=vsftpd

virtual_use_local_privs=YES

guest_enable=YES

user_sub_token=$USER

local_root=/var/www/$USER

hide_ids=YES

listen_address=0.0.0.0

pasv_min_port=12000

pasv_max_port=12100

pasv_address=35.185.147.119

listen_port=211

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Modified contents maked as bold.

Add firewall rules to access via cloud.