vsftpd in FC4 and [550 Failed to open file]

[akbhargava]

Hi,

I have been struggling with vsftpd in FC4 since I installed FC 4 a week ago. I have disabled all firewalls and removed pretty much all restrictions that I know of. I am including the vsftpd.conf at the bottom of this post - it is pretty much the default file.

My problems lie with the 550 error: "550 Failed to open file." I cannot find any reference that sheds light on how to get rid of this error and have tried all that I know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
akb


================================


# Example config file /etc/vsftpd/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.
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
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
#
# 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
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 turning on ascii_download_enable enables malicious remote parties
# to consume your I/O resources, by issuing the command "SIZE /big/file" in
# ASCII mode.
# These ASCII options are split into upload and download because you may wish
# to enable ASCII uploads (to prevent uploaded scripts etc. from breaking),
# without the DoS risk of SIZE and ASCII downloads. ASCII mangling should be
# on the client anyway..
#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 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().
#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

pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
#enable for standalone mode
listen=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES

[Patpicos]

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=permissive
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted



/etc/selinux/config


make that file like listed above and you'll be fine, i just did it

[aarongen]

Thanks! I was having the same problems.

[sultanfahad]

I am having exactly the same problem. I set the SELINUX=disabled. But the problem still persists.

[j27]

Thanks for the selinux hint on this post. I read several other posts first that sounded more promising but were of no help for my situation (running vsftpd in CentOS 5.2).
I looked at file permissions, vsftp, vsftpd.conf, passwd, hosts, all to no avail.
Changing the SELINUX setting in /etc/selinux/config didn't make any difference for me, but I couldn't find a way to notify selinux that I had changed this file (yet the file is read automatically every minute by some process, so maybe selinux doesn't need to be notified). Perhaps I need to reboot, but don't want to do that at present.

In any case, rather than fighting against selinux, why not go with it? I had put the files that I wanted to read via ftp in /var/ftp/pub (which already existed, and could be changed to by the anonymous ftp user). I got the dreaded "550 Failed to open file." message when trying mget or get on the files. To work with selinux I simply ran "chcon -R -t public_content_t /var/ftp" as recommended by "man ftpd_selinux". This made all files in /var/ftp accessible by ftp. The 550 error message went away and the files transferred as desired. To check the selinux settings on a file use "secon -f filename".

I hope this helps some poor soul!

[badtyprr]

Thanks for the selinux hint on this post. I read several other posts first that sounded more promising but were of no help for my situation (running vsftpd in CentOS 5.2).
I looked at file permissions, vsftp, vsftpd.conf, passwd, hosts, all to no avail.
Changing the SELINUX setting in /etc/selinux/config didn't make any difference for me, but I couldn't find a way to notify selinux that I had changed this file (yet the file is read automatically every minute by some process, so maybe selinux doesn't need to be notified). Perhaps I need to reboot, but don't want to do that at present.

In any case, rather than fighting against selinux, why not go with it? I had put the files that I wanted to read via ftp in /var/ftp/pub (which already existed, and could be changed to by the anonymous ftp user). I got the dreaded "550 Failed to open file." message when trying mget or get on the files. To work with selinux I simply ran "chcon -R -t public_content_t /var/ftp" as recommended by "man ftpd_selinux". This made all files in /var/ftp accessible by ftp. The 550 error message went away and the files transferred as desired. To check the selinux settings on a file use "secon -f filename".

I hope this helps some poor soul!

Thanks, I was worried about disabling SELINUX altogether. I much preferred this solution. 550 errors disappeared on CentOS 6.4 and everything's in tip-top shape. Thanks!