Problems authenicating pureftp via ssh

[vmos2]

I'm trying to get ftp working over ssh using the instructions from the pure ftp site

useradd -u ftpuser -g ftpuser -d /dev/null -s /usr/bin/false customer2
pure-pw useradd customer2 -m -d /home/customer2 -u ftpuser -r 127.0.0.1/32

On this setup, both the ftpuser and group ids are called ftpuser, when I try to run the above command, it complains about user id not being a numerical value, so I changed the line to

useradd -u 1000 -g ftpuser -d /dev/null -s /usr/bin/false customer2

and it accepts that, here's what pure-pw show customer2 /etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.passwd shows.

Login : customer2
Password : $1$U/k6JjO0$CWo1z1oTbYBwe4MdvFdnW.
UID : 5008 (ftpuser)
GID : 1000 (ftpuser)
Directory : /home/healthup/./
Full name :
Download bandwidth : 0 Kb (unlimited)
Upload bandwidth : 0 Kb (unlimited)
Max files : 0 (unlimited)
Max size : 0 Mb (unlimited)
Ratio : 0:0 (unlimited:unlimited)
Allowed local IPs :
Denied local IPs :
Allowed client IPs : 127.0.0.1/32
Denied client IPs :
Time restrictions : 0000-0000 (unlimited)
Max sim sessions : 0 (unlimited)


I've already got pure ftp working without ssh using mysql, I've added the user into allowedUsers in sshd.conf, I've added /usr/bin/false into etc/shells, i've restarted everything but I keep getting this in auth.log


Nov 28 23:34:52 serv1 sshd[3304]: error: PAM: Authentication failure for illegal user customer2 from <my network ID>
Nov 28 23:34:52 serv1 sshd[3304]: Failed keyboard-interactive/pam for illegal user customer2 from <MY IP ADDRESS> port 1960 ssh2


and maybe it's just too late in the day but I'm a bit stuck now, any ideas?

BTW, I'm using debian sarge and for ftp client I've tried securefx and filezilla


But then when I restart SSH and try to log in, I get these errors

Nov 28 23:54:23 serv1 sshd[11504]: User customer2 not allowed because shell /usr/bin/false does not exist
Nov 28 23:54:27 serv1 sshd[11504]: (pam_unix) authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=<my network ID> user=customer2
Nov 28 23:54:29 serv1 sshd[11504]: error: PAM: Authentication failure for illegal user customer2 from <my network ID>
Nov 28 23:54:29 serv1 sshd[11504]: Failed keyboard-interactive/pam for illegal user customer2 from <MY IP ADDRESS> port 2020 ssh2

I'm even more confused

[falko]

Please change the shell of customer2 from /usr/bin/false to /bin/false in /etc/passwd.

[vmos2]

thank you very much, that's got rid of all the errors, however I get this when I try to log in with securefx or filezilla

Nov 30 13:01:12 serv1 sshd[30096]: Accepted keyboard-interactive/pam for customer2 from <MY IP ADDRESS> port 3165 ssh2
Nov 30 13:01:12 serv1 sshd[30100]: (pam_unix) session opened for user customer2 by (uid=0)
Nov 30 13:01:12 serv1 sshd[30100]: subsystem request for sftp
Nov 30 13:01:12 serv1 sshd[30100]: (pam_unix) session closed for user customer2


now what's confusing me about this is that even though in filezilla I specify port 22, it comes up as 3165 or some similar number here or is it meant to be doing that?

[falko]

Yes, that's no problem.

[vmos2]

thanks for that, I've only just been able to get back to this issue this morning. Do you have any idea why the sftp session won't stay open?

[falko]

Sounds like a timeout problem. You can configure your SFTP client to send pings every 30 seconds or so so that the connection stays open.