Java Secure FTPd Server (jFTPd)

Running jFTPd as Web Application

To be able to run jFTPd as a Web Application there are several additional steps which must be completed.

Directory for configuration file

jFTPd needs to be able to read an external configuration file (named jftpd.properties). The path to the configuration file is specified via a servlet configuration parameter named configFilePath. After deploying the application, you can edit the jftpd-ws/WEB-INF/web.xml file and update this parameter:

....

<servlet-name>JFTPDServletRunner</servlet-name>

<display-name>JFTPDServletRunner</display-name>

<servlet-class>JFTPDServletRunner</servlet-class>

<init-param>

<param-name>configFilePath</param-name>

<param-value>c:\\opt\\jftpd.properties</param-value>

</init-param>

<load-on-startup>10</load-on-startup>

</servlet>

....

The jftpd.properties file holds informations about the location of users.dat file - as well as locations for the log/debug/error files generated by jFTPd. Asuming that the users.dat file is found in C:\opt directory, a valid configuration file looks like:

logfile=c:\\opt\\ftpd.log

errorlog=c:\\opt\\ftpd.error

debugfile=c:\\opt\\ftpd.debug

debug=true

usersfilename=c:\\opt\\users.dat

timeout=300

Tweaking Tomcat's policy file:

jFTPd needs a policy file to be able to enforce stronger security on what the users are allowed to access on the disk.

When running standalone, the policy file jftpd.security is passed to the JVM using the command line, but now, running from Tomcat, the policies must be added to catalina.policy file [which is the default policy file for Tomcat].

These lines must be added at the end of the catalina.policy file:

grant codeBase "file:${catalina.home}/webapps/jftpd-ws/-" {

permission java.security.SecurityPermission "insertProvider.SunJSSE";

permission java.io.FilePermission "c:\\-", "read, write, delete, execute";

permission java.io.FilePermission "d:\\-", "read, write, delete, execute";

permission java.io.FilePermission "e:\\-", "read, write, delete, execute";

permission java.io.FilePermission "c:\\", "read, write, delete, execute";

permission java.io.FilePermission "d:\\", "read, write, delete, execute";

permission java.io.FilePermission "e:\\", "read, write, delete, execute";

permission java.net.SocketPermission "*", "accept, resolve, listen, connect";

permission java.util.PropertyPermission "user.dir", "read";

permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "loadLibrary.unixruntime";

permission java.util.PropertyPermission "java.execsuffix", "read";

};

Second, Tomcat needs to know about catalina.policy, by adding the

-Djava.security.policy=D:\Develop\Tomcat 5.5\conf\catalina.policy

as argument for Tomcat.

For example, if you run Tomcat from Windows, as Service, you can go to the service properties (using the bin/tomcat5w.exe from Tomcat's directory) and add the line to the Java Options found under the Java tab.