NcFTPd: Domain Management: Example 4

Example 4: Admin wants user+password access, but not real user accounts

The administrator first creates a dummy account named ftponly, whose home directory is /home/ftponly. The password is locked out, and the shell in the /etc/passwd is listed as /bin/false. The admin creates a dummy group also named ftponly, and places the ftponly user account as the only member. The administrator then verifies that the user cannot really login in to the system or has access to any system services. The purpose of the account is to create a dummy UID and GID, and not to provide user access.

The admin wants to create virtual user accounts for michelle, danielle, and cheryl. The admin creates the directories /home/ftponly/michelle, /home/ftponly/danielle, and /home/ftponly/cheryl. All directories are owned by the ftponly account.

Next, the admin creates a NcFTPd Password Database containing the virtual user accounts for michelle, danielle, and cheryl. The virtual users are created so that they all use the UID and GID for the ftponly user and group.

Finally, the admin verifies that the general.cf has the u-always-restrict-virtual-users option set to yes. This allows the site to share the same ftponly UID and GID for all the virtual users, because one virtual user only has access to the directory they login in as, since the virtual user is restricted to their directory. Since the ftponly user cannot really login, there is no risk that the contents of the various virtual accounts can be modified.