ftp and /bin/false

[Rick Stevens]

Bazooka Joe wrote:
> I just migrated from fc4 to the latest cent.
> 
> in fc4 i used /bin/false for users that I only wanted ftp access and no shell.
> 
> That doesn't work in cent - I have to give them a shell to ftp.
> 
> How do I change it so /bin/false can ftp only in cent like it was in fc?
> 
> -bazooka
> 
> I know this is a cent question but I didn't get any love from that list.

The correct shell to give those users is "/sbin/nologin", not
"/bin/false".  Note also that the shell FTP users are given must be
listed in the "/etc/shells" file or they won't be allowed to log in--
even just for FTP.

On CentOS 5, for example, /etc/shells contains:

	/bin/sh
	/bin/bash
	/sbin/nologin
	/bin/tcsh
	/bin/csh

and the anonymous FTP user has this entry in /etc/passwd:

	ftp:x:14:50:FTP User:/var/ftp:/sbin/nologin

so the anonymous FTP user has "/sbin/nologin" for his shell and that
is also listed in /etc/shells.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer                      ricks at nerd.com -
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