vsftpd Unable to log in to ftp using Berkeley DB (V4) databases and PAM (pam_userdb.so)

Question

I just recently tried setting up vsftpd, following this nixCraft article on cyberciti and their article to set up virutal users.

I can connect using ftp localhost but it doesn't recognize the username vivek as pointed out by the log:

vsftpd: pam_unix(vsftpd:auth): check pass; user unknown 
vsftpd: pam_unix(vsftpd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ftp ruser=vivek
vsftpd: pam_succeed_if(vsftpd:auth): error retrieving information about user vivek

everything should have been done the exact same as the tutorials, with the exception that I used /var/www/$USER rather than what they had specified.

It's almost like it can't find the db for pam_userdb.so or it can't read it properly to be able to find the password.

Here's my /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file:

anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
virtual_use_local_privs=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
xferlog_std_format=NO
chroot_local_user=YES
listen=YES
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES
guest_enable=YES
user_sub_token=$USER
local_root=/var/www/$USER
hide_ids=YES
log_ftp_protocol=YES
banner_file=/etc/vsftpd/issue

Here's my /etc/pam.d/vsftpd file:

#%PAM-1.0
session    optional    pam_keyinit.so    force revoke
auth       required    pam_listfile.so item=user sense=deny file=/etc/vsftpd/f$
auth       required    pam_shells.so
auth       include     system-auth
account    include     system-auth
session    include     system-auth
session    required    pam_loginuid.so
auth       required    pam_userdb.so db=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user
account    required    pam_userdb.so db=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user
session    required    pam_loginuid.so

Does anyone know what's going on here?

Is there any way I can find out more info to see if it's finding/using the correct file?

Answer 1

In the /etc/pam.d/vsftpd file, it turns out I was only supposed to have the last three lines (the ones they provided in the tutorial).

After I changed the file to this:

#%PAM-1.0
auth       required    pam_userdb.so db=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user
account    required    pam_userdb.so db=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user
session    required    pam_loginuid.so

It worked just fine. However, I haven't used it long enough to figure out whether it created errors elsewhere. Please let me know if anyone sees anything wrong with this change.