Configure SFTP Server using chroot jail in Linux

ref: http://linuxnextgen.blogspot.com/2010/12/configure-sftp-server-using-chroot-jail.html Configure SFTP Server using chroot jail in Linux Release: RedHat Enterprise Linux Openssh 5.6P1 Problem: Configure the sftp-server on a per-user-basis (restrict users to their individual home directory) using chroot() jail in RedHat Enterprise Linux Solution: 1) Install the OpenSSH latest version that must support the chroot() function 2) Configure Openssh to use its internal sftp subsystem by editing the sshd_config file # vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config Replace Subsystem sftp /usr/local/libexec/sftp-server by Subsystem sftp internal-sftp 3) Now configure the chroot() by using match rule, add the below entries in the end of the sshd_config file # vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config Match group sftponly ChrootDirectory /home/%u X11Forwarding no AllowTcpForwarding no ForceCommand internal-sftp Note: Here %u represents username, that means all the users in the sftponly group home directories are chrooted. Also chroot directory must be owned by root. 4) Add one new group named as sftponly # groupadd sftponly 5) Create a new user to use retricted sftp. First create a user's home directory after that add the user # mkdir /home/test # useradd -g sftponly test # usermod -d / test Note: In here, create a home directory as a root user, while adding the user one warning comes like this, "useradd: warning: the home directory already exists" 6) Now test the configuration from client side [root@server Desktop]# sftp test@192.168.1.7 Connecting to 192.168.1.7... test@192.168.1.7's password: sftp> ls IN sftp> cd IN sftp> ls sftp> mput 1.png Uploading 1.png to /IN/1.png 1.png 100% 90KB 90.4KB/s 00:00 sftp> ls 1.png sftp> bye 7) Test the SFTP-Server function from the windows client use the “WinSCP” or “Filezilla”