Subject: Can wuftpd use alternate /etc/passwd?

From: "Brendan Choi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 12:12:03 -0700

I was wondering if wuftpd can be modified to use something other than
/etc/passwd for authentication? I want to move all the users who do only FTP
to something other than /etc/passwd or an NIS passwd file.

If not, I will have to hack the source code.

Brendan

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From: Gregory A Lundberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 15:57:46 -0400 (EDT)

On Wed, 19 May 1999, Brendan Choi wrote:

> /etc/passwd for authentication? I want to move all the users who do
> only FTP to something other than /etc/passwd or an NIS passwd file.
> 

If you hack the source code for this you are:

 - Insane (join the club)
 - In for a lot of unexpected breakage
 - Doing it the hard way

If you run Linux or Solaris (or, I think, HP/UX) what you want to do is
install PAM and do your hacking as a PAM module where you don't need to
get into the daemon.  Depending upon how you intend to validate users, you
can probably pick up an existing PAM module to do what you need.

If you need LDAP, let me know, I have some patches to LDAP-ify the daemon.
These patches are scheduled for review and possible (probable) inclusion
in a future version.

What I do, though, is a lot more basic.  I run the daemon in a chroot area
before starting it.  It still uses /etc/passwd, but not the system's
/etc/passwd.

And, of course, you could switch to the BeroFTPD version of Wu-FTPD.
BeroFTPD already supports alternate etc/passwd files.

-- 

Gregory A Lundberg              Senior Partner, VRnet Company
1441 Elmdale Drive              [email-masked]
Kettering, OH 45409-1615 USA    1-800-809-2195