VSFTPD vs. the openssl

do I need both?

[nadsab]

Back in Feb Sean said (in an old thread that I can't post to any longer):

[webmasterworld.com...]

"If you don't want any connections into port 21 then it would be more efficient to just not run the daemon, ie disable=yes in /etc/xinetd.d/vsftpd (then restart xinetd)" and also said: "It's my understanding that openssl provides its own sftp server daemon.. vsftpd has nothing to do with it."

If it’s openssl which is providing me my SFTP connections, is there a config file for the openssl sftp daemon which is specific to sftp connection settings, or is there only one openssl config file for all openssl settings? What’s the name of the config(s) file(s)?

Which begs the question - I thought that the reason to have the new version of VSFTPD was because it is very secure; doesn’t the SFTP openssl daemon make VSFTPD redundant? I mean, why would anyone want to use VSFTPD (or any other ftp engine for that matter) when one can use the OPENSSL sftp daemon instead? On the feature list for VSFTPD at - [vsftpd.beasts.org...] , One of the features listed is: Encryption support through SSL integration – but – if I already have openssl sftp, why do I need this? Or does vsftpd provide a plug in to the openssl sftp daemon, so that VSFTPD can provide additional sftp features or config options that are not available in the openssl sftp daemon as a stand alone sftp daemon?

One last question, how would I restart xinetd for above situation?

Thanks Sean or anyone else for any insights here.

[MattyMoose]

It's not OpenSSL that makes sftp available, but OpenSSH. OpenSSH depends on OpenSSL, but that's not what you're looking for.

The config files are located in different places on various systems, but a safe bet would be

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

. There you'll find options for sftp server. The only option you really have is enable the sftp subsystem in ssh. see

man sshd_config

for more info.

The reason you'd have vsftpd, is because: a) not everyone likes sftp, b) they like the functionality of vsftpd better (ie: virtual users, chroot, etc).

VSFTPD also also provides functionality for: regular FTP, FTP over SSL (Using SSL encryption -- NOT SSH), and various other transfer mechanisms.

One last question, how would I restart xinetd for above situation?

killall -HUP xinetd

Some useful links:
[openssh.org...]
[openssl.org...]
[vsftpd.beasts.org...]

[nadsab]

Thanks much Matty!