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My question is what settings do I need to change and/or commands to run to allow me to log into my vsftpd system?

I am getting this error, when I login using ftp instead of sftp:

Name (localhost:dbadmin): dbadmin
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
500 OOPS: cannot change directory:/home/dbadmin
Login failed.
ftp>

This works when logging in using sftp@, but my server is behind a firewall, and I need to be able to login using ftp as well as sftp.

I have been looking at quite a few posts about the "OOPS" error but so far have had no luck logging in.

Here is some information about my system and settings:

I am running CentOS 6.4.

iptables and ip6tables are stopped and disabled.

My home directory is protected 700, and I have tried 750, just to see if that made a difference. It did not.

Here are the active lines in /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
xferlog_std_format=YES
listen=YES
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES

My login name is not in user_list.

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2
  • Even i faced the same issue.. >Try changing the access to 775, it worked for me.
    – user137438
    Commented Oct 7, 2015 at 12:55
  • In case the problem still occurs even though you have disabled selinux, please recheck permissions of your directory. Is your ftp user really have rights in that folder? or Is any setgid bit set at parent of that folder? A 's' bit at parent folder might cause a problem, if you try to create a new folder beneath.
    – Chatchai Mao
    Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 8:08

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
11

Run this one command, no need to restart any service & server:

# setenforce 0

To check SELinux status : 

# getenforce

or

edit the file /etc/sysconfig/selinux to include

SELINUX=disabled

Doing so will require a reboot.

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1
  • 3
    It's interesting I got a drive-by down vote for pretty much the same answer a year and a half ago.
    – octopusgrabbus
    Commented Feb 18, 2015 at 7:32
7

Although disabling SELinux by SELINUX=disabled will solve the problem this would not be advisable. You can enable ftp user to access his home directory by configuring SELinux boolean value ftp_home_dir by running the following command:

setsebool -P ftp_home_dir=1
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4
  • Are the back ticks necessary, or result of inline and block formatting of code/commands?
    – Anthon
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 6:48
  • No, the backticks are not necessary.
    – suprjami
    Commented Nov 21, 2014 at 3:44
  • this should be the best answer to solve the problem, to avoid lower the whole system's security level without SELinux.
    – Tomofumi
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 4:21
  • Boolean ftp_home_dir is not defined??
    – Exlord
    Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 8:58
4

I disabled selinux by following these instructions here. I was able to log in not using sftp.

To disable permanently, I edited /etc/selinux/config and set

SELINUX=disabled

After the reboot, I was able to log in normally.

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1
  • 3
    Disabling SELinux is a troubleshooting step to determining whether SELinux is the cause of the problem, not a final solution. Once you have determined SELinux is the cause, you should look into your AVC denials and determine which boolean you need to change, or make a custom policy with the SELinux tools. Disabling SELinux permanently is not a good idea.
    – suprjami
    Commented Nov 21, 2014 at 3:46
4

you can always allow the FTP daemon full access to all files by running

setsebool -P allow_ftpd_full_access 1
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0

Probably the user has no execute privileges on their home folder. Perform:

chmod +x /home/user

or,

chmod 700 /home/user
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0

Hope this might help.

local_root=/var/www/ftp/$USER
user_sub_token=$USER
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1
  • 1
    Welcome to the site and thank you for your contribution. Would you mind adding more explanation as to how (i.e. by what mechanism) your answer solves the original problem? This might give others facing a similar problem more insight as to why they have this issue in the first place.
    – AdminBee
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 7:51
-1

Running setenforce 0 as another answer suggested did not work for me.

The following command solved the problem:

chmod -R 755 /home/dbadmin

(Previously the /home/dbadmin directory had 700 permissions.)

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