Problems with Proftpd after upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04

Submitted by pacolvin on Mon, 07/20/2015 - 13:50 Pro Licensee

I just upgraded from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04 LTS. Pretty much everything went smooth and everything is up and running except for Proftpd. Everything appears to be configured correctly, but when I try to start it, this is what appears in the log:

Jul 20 14:31:17 host1.sctfpa.org proftpd[7087] host1.sctfpa.org: Failed binding to ::, port 21: Address already in use
Jul 20 14:31:17 host1.sctfpa.org proftpd[7087] host1.sctfpa.org: Check the ServerType directive to ensure you are configured correctly.

I looked to see what was using port 21, and it is inetd. If I kill that, Proftpd will start up and run, but shouldn't inetd be left up and running?

Below is the config for Proftpd:

#
# /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf -- This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file.
# To really apply changes reload proftpd after modifications.
#

# Includes DSO modules
Include /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

# Set off to disable IPv6 support which is annoying on IPv4 only boxes.
UseIPv6 on
# If set on you can experience a longer connection delay in many cases.
IdentLookups off

ServerName "Debian"
ServerType standalone
DeferWelcome off

MultilineRFC2228 on
DefaultServer on
ShowSymlinks on

TimeoutNoTransfer 600
TimeoutStalled 600
TimeoutIdle 1200

DisplayLogin                    welcome.msg
DisplayChdir               .message true
ListOptions                "-l"

DenyFilter \*.*/

# Use this to jail all users in their homes
# DefaultRoot ~

# Users require a valid shell listed in /etc/shells to login.
# Use this directive to release that constrain.
# RequireValidShell off

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port 21

# In some cases you have to specify passive ports range to by-pass
# firewall limitations. Ephemeral ports can be used for that, but
# feel free to use a more narrow range.
# PassivePorts                  49152 65534

# If your host was NATted, this option is useful in order to
# allow passive tranfers to work. You have to use your public
# address and opening the passive ports used on your firewall as well.
# MasqueradeAddress 1.2.3.4

# This is useful for masquerading address with dynamic IPs:
# refresh any configured MasqueradeAddress directives every 8 hours
<IfModule mod_dynmasq.c>
# DynMasqRefresh 28800
</IfModule>

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30.  If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value.  Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd)
MaxInstances 30

# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User proftpd
Group nogroup

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
# (second parm) from being group and world writable.
Umask 022  022
# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
AllowOverwrite on

# Uncomment this if you are using NIS or LDAP via NSS to retrieve passwords:
# PersistentPasswd off

# This is required to use both PAM-based authentication and local passwords
# AuthOrder mod_auth_pam.c* mod_auth_unix.c

# Be warned: use of this directive impacts CPU average load!
# Uncomment this if you like to see progress and transfer rate with ftpwho
# in downloads. That is not needed for uploads rates.
#
# UseSendFile off

TransferLog /var/log/proftpd/xferlog
SystemLog   /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log

<IfModule mod_quotatab.c>
QuotaEngine off
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ratio.c>
Ratios off
</IfModule>


# Delay engine reduces impact of the so-called Timing Attack described in
# http://security.lss.hr/index.php?page=details&ID=LSS-2004-10-02
# It is on by default.
<IfModule mod_delay.c>
DelayEngine on
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls.c>
ControlsEngine        off
ControlsMaxClients    2
ControlsLog           /var/log/proftpd/controls.log
ControlsInterval      5
ControlsSocket        /var/run/proftpd/proftpd.sock
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls_admin.c>
AdminControlsEngine off
</IfModule>

#
# Alternative authentication frameworks
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/ldap.conf
#Include /etc/proftpd/sql.conf

#
# This is used for FTPS connections
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/tls.conf

# A basic anonymous configuration, no upload directories.

# <Anonymous ~ftp>
#   User ftp
#   Group nogroup
#   # We want clients to be able to login with "anonymous" as well as "ftp"
#   UserAlias anonymous ftp
#   # Cosmetic changes, all files belongs to ftp user
#   DirFakeUser on ftp
#   DirFakeGroup on ftp
#
#   RequireValidShell off
#
#   # Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins
#   MaxClients 10
#
#   # We want 'welcome.msg' displayed at login, and '.message' displayed
#   # in each newly chdired directory.
#   DisplayLogin welcome.msg
#   DisplayChdir .message
#
#   # Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot
#   <Directory *>
#     <Limit WRITE>
#       DenyAll
#     </Limit>
#   </Directory>
#
#   # Uncomment this if you're brave.
#   # <Directory incoming>
#   #   # Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
#   #   # (second parm) from being group and world writable.
#   #   Umask 022  022
#   #            <Limit READ WRITE>
#   #            DenyAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   #            <Limit STOR>
#   #            AllowAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   # </Directory>
#
# </Anonymous>
<Global>
</Global>

Thanks in advance.

Status: 
Active

Comments

Submitted by andreychek on Mon, 07/20/2015 - 13:57

Howdy -- you may not need inetd. That's not running on my personal servers, or on virtualmin.com.

However, if you're running a service that requires inetd, you could always disable the FTP portion of the inetd service.

Submitted by pacolvin on Mon, 07/20/2015 - 14:12 Pro Licensee

I do not think I'm using anything that requires inetd. I have stopped it and prevented it from starting at boot.

After stopping it I was able to get Proftpd up and running with no problem.

I did look at the inetd.conf file and it had both ftp and an entry for Proftpd. See below. If I do determine I need to have inetd running, can I just remove the ftp from the services and leave the /usr/sbin/proftpd?

Many thanks for the help.

# /etc/inetd.conf:  see inetd(8) for further informations.
#
# Internet superserver configuration database
#
#
# Lines starting with "#:LABEL:" or "#<off>#" should not
# be changed unless you know what you are doing!
#
# If you want to disable an entry so it isn't touched during
# package updates just comment it out with a single '#' character.
#
# Packages should modify this file by using update-inetd(8)
#
# <service_name> <sock_type> <proto> <flags> <user> <server_path> <args>
#
#:INTERNAL: Internal services
#discard stream tcp nowait root internal
#discard dgram udp wait root internal
#daytime stream tcp nowait root internal
#time stream tcp nowait root internal

#:STANDARD: These are standard services.
ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/proftpd

#:BSD: Shell, login, exec and talk are BSD protocols.

#:MAIL: Mail, news and uucp services.

#:INFO: Info services

#:BOOT: TFTP service is provided primarily for booting.  Most sites
#       run this only on machines acting as "boot servers."

#:RPC: RPC based services

#:HAM-RADIO: amateur-radio services

#:OTHER: Other services

Submitted by andreychek on Mon, 07/20/2015 - 14:16

Yup, if need be, you can just comment out that ftp line in the inetd config.

Submitted by pacolvin on Mon, 07/20/2015 - 14:20 Pro Licensee

Great. Thank you very much...