2.2.6.3. User Accounts

Because FTP transmits unencrypted usernames and passwords over insecure networks for authentication, it is a good idea to deny system users access to the server from their user accounts.

To disable all user accounts in vsftpd, add the following directive to /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf:

local_enable=NO

2.2.6.3.1. Restricting User Accounts

To disable FTP access for specific accounts or specific groups of accounts, such as the root user and those with sudo privileges, the easiest way is to use a PAM list file as described in Section 2.1.4.2.4, “Disabling Root Using PAM”. The PAM configuration file for vsftpd is /etc/pam.d/vsftpd.

It is also possible to disable user accounts within each service directly.

To disable specific user accounts in vsftpd, add the username to /etc/vsftpd/ftpusers