Subject: ftpgroups

From: "Speier, Guy J - CNF" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 10:29:19 -0700

could someone tell me a little about the ftpgroups file?

I checked the faq, and cannot find anything.  Why is it needed?
Do all guestusers' groups need to be entried in this file?  What
happens if they are not?

Guy

---

From: Gregory A Lundberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 13:41:15 -0400 (EDT)

>From the man page:

After user logs in, the SITE GROUP and SITE GPASS commands may be used to
specify an enhanced access group and associated password.  If the group
name and password are valid, the user becomes (via setegid()) a member of
the group specified in the group access file /etc/ftpgroups. 

The format of the group access file is:

            access_group_name:encrypted_password:real_group_name

where access_group_name is an arbitrary (alphanumeric + punctuation) 
string.  encrypted_password is the password encrypted via crypt(3),
exactly like in /etc/passwd.  real_group_name is the name of a valid group
listed in /etc/group. 

NOTE: For this option to work for anonymous FTP users, the ftp server must
keep /etc/group permanently open and the group access file is loaded into
memory.  This means that (1) the ftp server now has an additional file
descriptor open, and (2) the necessary passwords and access privileges
granted to users via SITE GROUP will be static for the duration of an FTP
session.  If you have an urgent need to change the access groups and/or
passwords *NOW*, you just kill all of the running FTP servers. 

----

Gregory A Lundberg		Senior Partner, VRnet Company
1441 Elmdale Drive              email: [email-masked] [205.133.13.8]
Kettering, OH 45409-1615 USA    voice: +1 (937) 299-7653