10 VsFTP (Very Secure File Transfer Protocol) Interview Questions and Answers

FTP stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol‘ is one of the most widely used and standard protocol available over Internet. FTP works in a Server/Client architecture and is used to transfer file. Initially FTP client were command-line based. Now most of the platform comes bundled with FTP client and server program and a lot of FTP Client/Server Program is available. Here we are presenting 10 Interview Questions based on Vsftp (Very Secure File Transfer Protocol) on a Linux Server.

1. What is the Difference between TFTP and FTP Server?

Answer : TFTP is File Transfer Protocol which usages User Datagram Protocol (UDP) whereas FTP usages Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TCP usages port number 20 for Data and 21 for control by default whereas TFTP usages port 69 by default.

Note: Briefly you can say FTP usages port 21 by default when clarification between Data and Control is not required.

2. How to Restrict Users and Disallow browsing beyond their Home Directories? How?

Answer : Yes! It is possible to restrict users to their home directories and browsing beyond home directories. This can be done by enabling chroot option in ftp configuration file (i.e. vsftpd.conf).

chroot_local_user=YES

3. How would you manage number of FTP clients that connect to your FTP server?

Answer : We need to set ‘max_client parameter’. This parameter controls the number of clients connecting, if max_client is set to 0, it will allow unlimited clients to connect FTP server.The maximum client parameter needs to be changed in vsftpd.conf and the default value is 0.

4. How to limit the FTP login attempts to fight against botnet/illegal login attempts?

Answer : We need to edit ‘max_login_fails parameter’. This parameter manages the maximum number of login attempts before the session is killed. The default value is ‘3’ which means a maximum of ‘3’ login attempts are possible failing which the session will be killed.

5. How to enable file upload from anonymous users to FTP Server?

Answer : Anonymous users can be allowed to upload files to FTP server by modifying parameter ‘anon_upload_enable’. If Value of anon_upload_enable is set to Yes, Anonymous users are permitted to upload files. In order to have a working anonymous upload, we must have parameter ‘write_enable’ activated. The Default Value is NO, which means anonymous upload is disabled.

6. How would you disabled downloads from FTP server?

Answer : Disabling Downloads from FTP Server can be implemented by modifying the parameter ‘download_enable’. If set to NO, all download request will be denied. The Default value is YES which Means, Downloading is Enabled.

7. How to enable and permit FTP login to local users?

Answer : The parameter ‘Local_enable’ is responsible for managing local users login. In order to activate local users login, we must set ‘local_enable=yes’ in file vsftpd.conf. The default value is NO, which means Local User Login is not permitted.

8. Is it Possible to maintain log of FTP requests and responses?

Answer : Yes! We can log FTP requests and responses. What we need to do is to modify the binary value of parameter ‘log_ftp_protocol’. If set to Yes, it will log all the requests, responses. The log may be very useful in Debugging. The default value of above parameter is NO which means no logs are maintained by default.

Note: In order to create and maintains logs successfully, the parameter ‘xferlog_std_format’ must be enabled.

9. How to disable the login for few seconds, in case of failed login. How will you achieve this?

Answer : The number of seconds we need to pause in case of failed login attempt can be achieved by modifying the value of parameter ‘delay_failed_login’. The default value is 1.

10. How to display certain text message before a client connects to FTP server. How would you get this done?

Answer : We can achieve this by setting ‘banner_file’. We need to set ftpd_banner=/path/to/banner-file in vsftpd.conf file.

FTP is a very Useful tool and is vast yet very interesting. Moreover it is useful from Interview Point of View. We have taken the pain to bring these questions to you and will cover more of these questions in our future article. Till then stay tuned and connected to Tecmint.