How to fix FTP permission issue?

Question

Have set up an FTP server and user. but it seems I'm unable to upload or edit any file.

Even though the user has filled 777 permission. I can't even upload files to the user's root folder.

Server OS: Ubuntu

Client OS windows

FTP server/ Client: fileZila

Log:

Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Status: Insecure server, it does not support FTP over TLS.
Status: Server does not support non-ASCII characters.
Status: Logged in
Status: Starting download of /var/www/html/wp/staged/wp-content/themes/Newspaper/Newspaper/woocommerce/single-product.php
Status: File transfer successful, transferred 1,193 bytes in 1 second
Status: Starting download of /var/www/html/wp/staged/wp-content/themes/Newspaper/Newspaper/woocommerce/single-product.php
Status: File transfer successful, transferred 1,193 bytes in 1 second
Status: Starting upload of C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\fz3temp-2\single-product.php
Command:    PASV
Response:   227 Entering Passive Mode (165,227,173,119,117,244).
Command:    STOR single-product.php
Response:   550 Permission denied.
Error:  Critical file transfer error

File permission:

Groups and users:

vsftpd.conf:

# Standalone mode
listen=YES
max_clients=200
max_per_ip=4
# Access rights
anonymous_enable=YES
local_enable=NO
write_enable=YES
anon_upload_enable=YES
anon_mkdir_write_enable=NO
anon_other_write_enable=NO
# Security
anon_world_readable_only=NO
connect_from_port_20=YES
hide_ids=YES
pasv_min_port=50000
pasv_max_port=60000
# Features
xferlog_enable=YES
ls_recurse_enable=NO
ascii_download_enable=NO
async_abor_enable=YES
# Performance
one_process_model=YES
idle_session_timeout=120
data_connection_timeout=300
accept_timeout=60
connect_timeout=60
anon_max_rate=50000
anon_mkdir_write_enable=NO
anon_other_write_enable=NO

#Userlist

userlist_deny=NO
userlist_enable=YES
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.allowed_users

vsftpd.allowed_users:

ftpuser

Any idea what's going on here?

Update: I have changed the permission of the folder that holds the file to 777, and it still doesn't work.

log:

Status: Logged in
Status: Starting download of /var/www/html/wp/staged/wp-content/themes/Newspaper/Newspaper/woocommerce/single-product.php
Status: File transfer successful, transferred 1,193 bytes in 1 second
Status: Starting upload of C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\fz3temp-2\single-product.php
Command:    PASV
Response:   227 Entering Passive Mode (*xxxxxxxxxxxx*).
Command:    STOR single-product.php
Response:   550 Permission denied.
Error:  Critical file transfer error
Status: Retrieving directory listing of "/var/www/html/wp/staged/wp-content/themes/Newspaper/Newspaper"...
Status: Directory listing of "/var/www/html/wp/staged/wp-content/themes/Newspaper/Newspaper" successful
Status: Disconnected from server
Status: Connection closed by server

Answer 1

Your server seems to have been wide open. You had

anonymous_enable=YES
local_enable=NO

so anyone could connect to the FTP server with no real password check using usernames ftp or anonymous, and access any files or directories the user account configured with ftp_username (not specified, defaults to ftp) could. Such anonymous logins are also more tightly controlled than regular password-authenticated ones.

The upload may have failed because vsftpd might not allow anonymous users to overwrite existing files: I think you would have had to explicitly delete or rename the old file before uploading a new one in its place as an anonymous user. But because you had

anon_other_write_enable=NO

it would have not allowed you to do that.

If you are using a FTP server to allow website maintenance, you'll most definitely want to set anonymous_enable to NO and local_enable to YES, in order to disallow unauthenticated access, or else anyone with a FTP client could easily deface your site.

(And authentication without encryption is so last millennium: you would want to set up FTP over TLS unless you allow FTP access from secure private networks only!)

Answer 2

I have uninstalled vsftpd using:

sudo apt-get purge vsfpt

Then configured it using this simple guide: How To Set Up vsftpd

I still don't know what was the issue, but it works now.