Linux SFTP user without a home directory

linuxsftp

Suppose I have a home directory called "website".

I want to create an sftp user to access that home folder and the sftp user is going to have a less obvious user name. There may be quite a few users like this so I am wondering if I can create these new sftp users without a home directory of their own and send them to the "website" directory.

I tried this by using usermod -m -d and then deleting the new users home folder but got access denied when logging in.

Best Answer

Groups!

addgroup yourgroup

chgrp yourgroup /some/dir

Add the users you want to share this directory to the group.

usermod -g yourgroup user1
usermod -g yourgroup user2

Give group proper permissions to /some/dir. 775 is just an example.

chmod 775 /some/dir

Assign /some/dir as the home directory for your users.

usermod -d /some/dir user1
usermod -d /some/dir user2

Voila.

Related Solutions

Ssh – It is fair to jail the SFTP users to their home directory

chrooting users using ssh is not a desirable configuration in most cases. When they're jailed into their home dir, they won't be able to use any programs outside their home dir. This makes unix almost unusable as a shell server.

You can use FTPS instead of SFTP/SCP, which will send passwords over SSL, but uses an ssh server, allowing you to chroot them for file transfer, but not for login (although little is gained if you only chroot their file transfers, and they will still be able to scp data from the machine).

Ssh – CopSSH SFTP — limit users access to their home directory only

create group 'SSH Users' in computer management
Add group to gpedit -> Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment -> Allow log on locally (see Can't login to Cygwin sshd server with a non-administrator user account)
run gpupdate
Add ftpuser to group SSH Users
Append details in /etc/sshd_config:
```
Subsystem sftp internal-sftp

Match User ftpuser
    ChrootDirectory /home/ftpuser
    X11Forwarding no
    AllowTcpForwarding no
    ForceCommand internal-sftp
```
(the keywords on the lines following the Match directive apply only to the user ftpuserand override those set in the global section of the config file, until either another Match line or the end of the file.)
Activate ftpuser user through copSSH wizard
Delete all .ssh .bashprofile files/folders under ftpuser folder
Set SvcCOPSSH user to root id 0
```
SvcCOPSSH:unused_by_nt/2000/xp:**0**:545:U...
```
(see http://www.itefix.no/i2/node/11956)
Might need to do the following as well in copSSH 'UNIX BASH Shell'
```
cd /
chown SvcCOPSSH /
chmod 0755 /
```
restart openssh service

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ssh – It is fair to jail the SFTP users to their home directory

Ssh – CopSSH SFTP — limit users access to their home directory only

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