Install Proftpd in CentOS 7 – Linux and Other Stuff

How to Add Proftpd in CentOS 7 for ftp access.

Step 1: Add the EPEL Repository
ProFTPD is part of Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL), which is a community repository of non-standard packages for the RHEL distribution. First, we’ll install the EPEL repository:

# rpm -iUvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/e/epel-release-7-5.noarch.rpm

Step 2: Install ProFTPD

Let’s update first:

# yum -y update

Then let’s install ProFTPD and any required packages:

# yum -y install proftpd

Step 3: Configure ProFTPD
For a refresher on editing files with vim see: New User Tutorial: Overview of the Vim Text Editor

Let’s edit the configuration file for ProFTPD:

# nano /etc/proftpd.conf

Change the ServerName to the hostname of your server. In the case below, ftp.domainname.com is an example:

ServerName “ftp.domainname.com”

Enabling TLS In ProFTPD
Add and modify the lines as below.


# nano /etc/proftpd.conf
[...]
DefaultRoot                     ~ !adm
PassivePorts 60000 65535
[...] 

#
  TLSEngine                     on
  TLSRequired                   on
  TLSRSACertificateFile         /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem
  TLSRSACertificateKeyFile      /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem
  TLSCipherSuite                ALL:!ADH:!DES
  TLSOptions                    NoCertRequest
  TLSVerifyClient               off
  TLSRenegotiate                ctrl 3600 data 512000 required off timeout 300
  TLSLog                        /var/log/proftpd/tls.log
#  
#    TLSSessionCache            shm:/file=/var/run/proftpd/sesscache
#  
#
[...]

Exit and save the file with the command :wq .

Restart the ProFTPD service:

# systemctl restart proftpd

Then set the ProFTPD service to start at boot:

# systemctl enable proftpd

And verify your work by checking the status of ProFTPD:

# systemctl status proftpd

Step 4: Allow ProFTPD Through the Firewall
Allow the default FTP port, port 21, through firewalld:

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=21/tcp
# firewall-cmd --add-port=60000-65535/tcp --permanent

And reload the firewall:

firewall-cmd --reload

In order to use TLS, we must create an SSL certificate. Create it in /etc/pki/tls/certs, we can generate the SSL certificate as follows:

# openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem -out /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem

[root@webhost certs]# openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem -out /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem -nodes -days 365
Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
.++++++
...........................................................++++++
writing new private key to '/etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem'
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]:US
State or Province Name (full name) []:Texas
Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]:Austin
Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]:TestCo
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:IT
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:webhost.domainname.com
Email Address []:test@gmail.com

# chmod  0440 /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem

Restart:

# systemctl restart proftpd.service

Leave a Comment Cancel reply