Admin Control Panel v2.0

✎ Editing: README.TLS ← Back

------------------------ TLS SUPPORT ------------------------

Pure-FTPd supports encryption of the control and data channels using
TLS security mechanisms.

When this extra security layer is enabled, login and passwords are no more
sent as cleartext. Neither are other commands sent by your client nor replies
made by the server.

------------------------ COMPILATION ------------------------

To support TLS, the OpenSSL library must already be installed on your
system. This is a common requirement so your operating system probably
already ships with it.

Pure-FTPd also has to be configured with the --with-tls switch before
compilation :

./configure --with-tls ...
  make install-strip

If something goes wrong, try to bring your OpenSSL library up-to-date.

------------------------ CERTIFICATES ------------------------

TLS connections require certificates, as well as their key.

Both can be bundled into a single file. If you have both a `.pem` file
and a `.key` file, just concatenate the content of the `.key` file to
the `.pem` file.

By default, Pure-FTPd will look for a cert+key bundle in the
/etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem file.

The location can be changed at compile-time with the --with-certfile
and --with-keyfile options passed to ./configure.

It can also be changed at runtime, with the CertFile option in the
configuration file:

CertFile                     /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem
or
CertFileAndKey               /etc/pure-ftpd.pem /etc/pure-ftpd.key

The former is for a bundle, the later loads two files.

If you already have a certificate for another service on the same host
(commonly for HTTPS), you can use it as well with Pure-FTPd and other
TLS-enabled services.

Both RSA and ECDSA signatures are supported, but not simultaneously.

For testing purposes, a self-signed certificate can be created as follows:

mkdir -p /etc/ssl/private

openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -sha256 -keyout \
  /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem \
  -out /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem

chmod 600 /etc/ssl/private/*.pem

In this example, 2048 is the number of bits used for the RSA key.

Here's what the /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem should look like :

If you need client certificate verification, prefix the list of
ciphers (-J/--tlsciphersuite) with -C:

pure-ftpd --tlsciphersuite=-C:HIGH -Y2 ...

If you want to do certificate-based client authentication, their
public key must be included in the pure-ftpd.pem file.

If multiple domains are used on the same server, each with its
own certificate, Pure-FTPd supports SNI and custom certificate
handlers (see down below).

------------------------ ACCEPTING TLS SESSIONS ------------------------

Once the certificate has been installed, you need to start a TLS-enabled
pure-ftpd daemon with the -Y (or --tls=) switch. Example :

/usr/local/sbin/pure-ftpd --tls=1 &

- With "--tls=0", support for TLS is disabled. This is the default.

- With "--tls=1", clients can connect either the traditional way or through an
TLS layer. This is probably the setting you need if you want to enable
TLS without having too many angry customers.

- With "--tls=2", cleartext sessions are refused and only TLS compatible
clients are accepted.

- With "--tls=3", cleartext sessions are refused and only TLS compatible
clients are accepted. Clear data connections are also refused, so private
data connections are enforced. This is an extreme setting.

When TLS has been successfully negotiated for a connection, you'll see
something similar to this in log files :

<<
TLS: Enabled TLSv1/SSLv3 with ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256, 128 secret bits cipher
>>

------------------------ CUSTOM CERTIFICATE HANDLERS ------------------------

If multiple domains are used to access the server, each with their own
certificate, Pure-FTPd supports the SNI (Server Name Indication) extension, as
well as a flexible mechanism to map names to certificates.

The pure-certd daemon needs to be started along with the FTP server.

pure-certd listens to certificate requests, runs arbitrary commands written in
any programming language, provides them the client SNI name, and returns what
action has to be taken, and/or where the certificate to use is located.

pure-certd command-line options follow:

-B      --daemonize
-g      --gid   <opt>
-h      --help
-p      --pidfile       <opt>
-r      --run   <opt>
-s      --socket        <opt>
-u      --uid   <opt>

The mandatory ones are --run and --socket. The former indicates what command
to run in order to return actions and certificates, the later is a path to the
local UNIX socket that will be created in order to communicate with the FTP
server.

Example usage:

pure-certd --run /opt/pure-ftpd/bin/certificate-handler.sh \
           --socket /var/run/ftpd-certs.sock

The command can access the SNI name in an environment variable named
CERTD_SNI_NAME. If this is a shell script, make sure that the file is
executable.

The command should print the following lines to the standard output:

action:xxx
cert_file:yyy (optional)
key_file:zzz  (optional)
end

With xxx being one of:

- deny: access is denied
- default: the default certificate will be used
- strict: the certificate whose path is indicated in "cert_path" will be used.
If absent or invalid, access will be denied.
- fallback: the certificate whose path is indicated in "cert_path" will be used.
If absent or invalid, the default certificate will be used instead.

yyy is the absolute path on the filesystem where the certificate is located.
It can be a certificate+key bundle.

zzz is optional and is the path to the certificate secret key, if it is not
bundled into the PEM file.

If the action is "deny" or "default", "cert_file" and "key_file" do not have
to be provided.

Here is a trivial example script logging the SNI name, and returning a fixed
certificate path:

#! /bin/sh

echo 'action:strict'
echo 'key_file:/etc/pure-ftpd/special.pem'
echo 'done'

Once pure-certd is running, the FTP server must be configured to use it.

This is achieved by enabling the "ExtCert" feature in the configuration file:

ExtCert                      /var/run/ftpd-certs.sock

The path to the socket must match the one created by pure-certd.

------------------------ COMPATIBLE CLIENTS ------------------------

Pure-FTPd was reported to be fully compatible with the following clients with
the TLS encryption layer turned on :

* Transmit (OSX)
  URL: https://panic.com/transmit/

TLS works out of the box, both in implicit and explicit modes.

* CoreFTP Lite (Windows)
  URL: http://www.coreftp.com/

TLS perfectly works when "AUTH TLS" is enabled. CoreFTP Lite has some
neat features like IPv6 support, remote file searching, .htaccess editing,
queueing, bandwidth control, etc.

CoreFTP Lite is free both for personal and business use.

* SmartFTP (Windows)
  URL: https://www.smartftp.com/

An excellent client with IPv6 support, port range limitation and other
useful features (!= bloat) . And it's free for personal, educational and non-
commercial use. And it detects Pure-FTPd :)

TLS perfectly works when the "FTP over SSL (explicit)" protocol is
selected and when the data connection mode (Tools->Settings->SSL) is set to
"clear data connection" while the AUTH mode (also in Tools->Settings->SSL) is
set to "TLS".

* FlashFXP (Windows)
  URL: https://www.flashfxp.com/

TLS works. In the "Quick connect" dialog box, pick the "SSL" tab and :
 - enable Auth TLS
 - disable Secure File Listing
 - disable Secure File Transfers

* SDI FTP (Windows)
  URL: https://www.sdisw.com/

TLS works. In the "Connection" tab, just pick "SSL Support: TLSv1".

* LFTP (Unix, MacOS X)
  URL: https://lftp.yar.ru/

TLS is automatically detected and works out of the box.

* RBrowser (MacOS X)
  URL: http://www.rbrowser.com/

A cute graphical client for MacOS that was reported to work by Jason Rust
and Robert Vasvari.

* Cyberduck (OSX)
  https://cyberduck.ch/

TLS works out of the box.

* WinSCP (Windows)
  https://winscp.net/eng/index.php
  WinSCP should be configured with "File protocol" set to "FTP" with
"TLS Explicit encryption".

Cancel