Or not so simple?

I am somewhat new to linux and am wanting to do a pretty basic setup with my Ubuntu-server. I want to install an FTP server (vsftp, Proftp, whatever) that I can create a user(s) and have that user have access to a folder (/data/share). The user will need to be able to read/write as well and create new folders within. I do not want them to be able to browse the rest of my server however.

This seems simple enough and yet all I can find online is how to set up a user to be locked into their user folder.

Any help would be ver much appreciated.

Hi

I've been helping him with this problem. We initially used VSFTP which I like for its simple configuration and security, but as far as extended features it seemed to be lacking (to do what we want to do).

We are looking at PROFTP right now but if there is a better free solution that provides less bloat and a secure setup we would greatly appreciate it.

The rest of what you want is permissions related. Just give the users suitable permissions in the folder they can access.

Will that lock them from being able to view outside their folder?
Also, it still requires us to add a user to the system does it not?

I thought you already had locking them in a folder figured out. If they're already a user on the system, I think they'll have whatever privledges they normally might in their /home directory. All "chroot" functions are managed from vsftpd.conf

For a complete list of those functions ... $ man vsftpd.conf

K I think i got it locked down now. The FTP users are using a shared home dir and are chrooted to that directory with all the access they need.

The only problem now, is that my ftpuser i created is able to login to a shell on the server, which I DONT want them to be able to do!
I tried setting their shell to /bin/false, which killed their shell login successfully, BUT also kills their ability to login to VSFTPD! Is there a work around for this?

Nevermind, figured it out.

Used PAM & SSHD to restrict access. Local access to the server is secured and nothing else is running but SSH and FTP for now.