# Secure FTP



## Paradoxium2004 (Aug 18, 2010)

I have installed FreeBSD 8.1 Release. I can setup Anon FTP, which is fine, but it's too easy to connect. Granted, I'm behind a router, but I want my FTP connection to be secure, and not so open to hackers.

What can/should I do ?


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## shitson (Aug 18, 2010)

Secure FTP is really a misnomer... FTP Itself is not secure even when you password protect it. You can use something like SFTP (Which is actually Secure FTP) but just slapping passwords onto your FTP box will not make it secure. 

A good explanation is found here

Otherwise you will need to look for a guide or man pages based on the FTP server software your using to enable forced passwords


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## shitson (Aug 18, 2010)

shitson said:
			
		

> Secure FTP is really a misnomer... FTP Itself is not secure even when you password protect it. You can use something like SFTP (Which is actually Secure FTP) but just slapping passwords onto your FTP box will not make it secure.
> 
> A good explanation is found here
> 
> Otherwise you will need to look for a guide or man pages based on the FTP server software your using to enable forced passwords



Edit: But if your looking at just adding another layer of protection you should be able to reconfigure your FTP server program with passwords. Follow the guide here. You can either remove the FTP account from the system or put it in the list of users who are not allowed to login.


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## Slade (Aug 18, 2010)

Look up SFTP. You can chroot a user very easily with SFTP. So basically someone logs in and they are restricted to their home directory. So you could just add a user that's just for ftp. You should be able to google around for sftp chroot openssh, there are a lot of guides out there. Most of them will be for linux but since it's openssh you are configuring it shouldn't matter. If for some reason you have to stick with just ftp I believe vsftpd (http://vsftpd.beasts.org/) is considered the most secure.


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