"500 OOPS: vsftpd: refusing to run with writable root inside chroot()" - login failed on Debian

Question

I installed vsFTPd for running an FTP server on Debian 7.3 (Wheezy). I checked the vsFTPd version was 2.3.5, and I configured it like so:

listen=YES
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
pasv_min_port=15000
pasv_max_port=15200
allow_writeable_chroot=YES

I followed these articles for solving this problem:

• http://blog.waja.info/2013/05/13/500-oops-vsftpd-refusing-to-run-with-writable-root-inside-chroot/

• http://www.mikestechblog.com/joomla/operating-systems-section/operating-systems-ubuntu/155-500-oops-vsftpd-refusing-to-run-with-writable-root-inside-chroot.html

And many others on Google and forums, but my problem was not solved.

NOTE: I have solved this problem on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin), but that solution does not work on Debian 7.3.

I really mixed up on it?!

Solution 1

I searched for it toooooooooo much, and I really mixed up, so I decided to change vsFTPd to SFTP or something else, till I found a link about this bug.

Then I found out this problem was solved in vsFTPd version 3. So I searched how to upgrade it and could find to add the jessie repository to my Debian 7.3 installation and upgrade it so:

echo "deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
aptitude update
aptitude upgrade vsftpd
echo "allow_writeable_chroot=YES" >> /etc/vsftpd.conf
service vsftpd restart

Now it works correctly for me.

Solution 2

Just add

seccomp_sandbox=NO

to the configuration and restart the service with service vsftpd restart

Then "allow_writeable_chroot=YES" will work also with newer vsFTPd versions (found in 500 OOPS: vsftpd: refusing to run with writable root inside chroot() Keep user jailed).

Comments

[John]

You are right about the Jessie thing but I would not suggest people to just add a Jessie repository to Wheezy. It also wants to update libc and there is a good chance to destroy your disitribution that way.

[Black]

For me it was enough to just add allow_writeable_chroot=YES to /etc/vsftpd.conf

[Valerio Bozzolan]

Note that the vsftpd package is Free as in Freedom software, so the first command adding the contrib and non-free repositories is completely unrelated. Just an apt update and apt upgrade and enabling that option is enough.