Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: anonymous ftp and /etc/passwd (was Re: WARNING!) Message-ID: <1991Apr11.140844.9224@athena.mit.edu> Date: 11 Apr 91 14:08:44 GMT References: <26520@adm.brl.mil> Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system) Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 19 In article , meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner) writes: |> Ummm, unless you wrote your own ftpd, the standard BSD one explicitly |> chroot's anonymous FTP requests to the logon directory of the user |> 'ftp'. In every system manual, where I've seen how to set up |> anonymous FTP, it mentions this, and tells the system manager never to |> make the logon directory be '/'. The system manual also tells the system manager that (quoting from the BSD version of the manual) "The files passwd(5) and group(5) must be present [in ~ftp/etc] for the ls command to work properly." Many system admins simply copy their /etc/passwd file to ~ftp/etc/passwd when setting it up, rather than doing something smart like only putting a couple entries in ~ftp/etc/passwd or changing all the passwords in it to "*" before installing it. -- Jonathan Kamens USnail: MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace jik@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134 Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710