Re: FTP-client for Windows, safety concerns

[herbert langhans <herbert.raimund%langhans.com.pl@localhost>]

On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 11:38:27PM +0100, Chavdar Ivanov wrote:
> On 14 June 2012 23:15, Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 3:09 PM, herbert langhans
> > <herbert.raimund%langhans.com.pl@localhost> wrote:
> >> Long story, simple question: what relieable(!) FTP-client for Windows
> >> and Apples should I recommend to my FTP-users? Some full functional
> >> (think about gftp) gui-programm would be the best. Maybe even something
> >> easy to install, so I can send them the exe file via e-mail ...
> >
> > What is wrong with the web browser?
> >
> > ftp://user:password%ftp.server.com@localhost
> 
> Plenty of reasons *not* to use a browser as an ftp client, i.e. no
> control over active vs. passive mode, difficult or impossible upload
> etc.
> 
> I've always installed filezilla on customers' workstations, setting up
> their account to connect to our ftp server.
> 
> The 'safety' aspect is bogus; I monitor their accounts to make sure it
> is not used outside its remit; the passwords are not important - the
> ftp server (proftpd) has been configured to use 'Defaultroot ~' - i.e.
> chrooted to users' home directory. sshd_config has
> 'PasswordAuthentication no' and the ftp server has 'PathDenyFilter
> ".htaccess|.ftpaccess|authorized_keys"' - which stops them from
> uploading their own key to let them log on interactively.

The 'Defaultroot' trick I tried. If I remember correct, you cannot
access linked files - this is a nasty side effect. Otherwise it would be
great that the users cannot get lost when they hop back some
directories. According the logfiles its a typical reaction that the
users log out, restart the client and log in again.
herb langhans