Password Free FTP Server Configuration Hint

A password free FTP server configuration is very similiar to an TFTP server. Clients can login supplying any username without a password. Each client has, based on it's IP-number, it's own home directory where the client can do whatever it wants. ftp.server comes with a configuration for this, see /etc/ftpserver.conf.

To get a regular FTP server simply run

# ftp.server -D

that's all.

For password-free accounts the required configuration is

#/etc/ftpserver.conf
#


# Allow any user by emptying the denylist.
#
  denylist      -

# Any user can login without a password.
#
  nopwlist      *

# Each session is locked to a directory depending on the
# client's IP number.  Notice: If the directory does not
# exist the login fails.  This is the only session access
# control for this server configuration.
#
  chrootdir     /tmp/tftp-server/\i

# Sessions begin in their virtual root directory.
#
  homedir       /

# Password free sessions run under nobody's user id.
#
  nopwuser      nobody

The example above (ariane's FTP server configuration is similiar) shares it's data space with ariane's TFTP server. This makes sense since both configurations come without real access control.

The only control about which clients may connect, is that the client's home directory must exist (/tmp/tftp-server/192.168.1.7 for the client 192.168.1.7). File permissions apply as usual. Since the FTP sessions run with nobody's user id and group the directory should be owned by nobody to give the clients write permissions.

To start the FTP server type

# ftp.server -D -f /etc/ftpserver.conf