Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
39 lines (25 loc) · 1.46 KB

ftp-scp.md

File metadata and controls

39 lines (25 loc) · 1.46 KB

ftp-scp

SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) is the transfer protocol to view and transfer files over SSH. SFTP works the same as FTP but is encrypted.

SFTP Advantages

  • Encrypted
  • Nothing extra to install (such as FTP server)
  • Works like any other FTP server
  • Compatible with the popular clients such as Filezilla and WinSCP
  • You can login to any SSH accessable Linux user.

How to use SFTP

  • Connect like any FTP except it uses the port (default 22)
  • Use your linux username / password
  • You might need to set protocol to SFTP in your FTP client.

Bad practice to avoid

By all means, you should never

  1. Connect to a server as root.
  2. Use FTP if SFTP is available.

Root login to an FTP

Here is why you shouldn't

  • By logging in as root, you might accidentally remove essential system files or put useless files into the wrong place and mess up with your system.
  • But even more annoying, any file you'll write will belong to root, and the user won't be able to either read, change, or execute writtent files as root.
  • FTP is an unencrypted protocol, therefore it is very unsecure to edit sensitive files using it.

How to operate without root FTP login ?

  • If you need to edit system config files, then do like everyone else : use an SSH text editor like "nano" or "vi".
  • Set your FTP so that you can login as users with a valid shell from the machine. Eventually, disable root FTP login.
  • Oh, one more thing... Did we talk about SFTP ?