Issue Prevent FTP account being created

[Johannes Kingma]

Server operating system version

4.18.0-553.157.1.lve.el7h.x86_64

Plesk version and microupdate number

Plesk Obsidian 18.0.81

How do we prevent the creation of FTP accounts for System Users? FTP access is unwanted/unneeded and just offers an extra, unwanted attack surface. We want to make sure only sftp is used

 

[sacavusoglu]

Hi @Johannes Kingma

As far as I recall, it is possible to set a limit on the number of FTP accounts for a hosting plan assigned to a given domain name. Furthermore, even if a single subscription includes multiple domain names, the total number of FTP accounts can still be restricted to just one.

 

[Kaspar]

It this on a shared hosting environment also or on a server you fully administer yourself?

If it's the latter and you goal is to have users only access to the server via sftp, the easiest option is to just block the default FTP ports (20 and 21). That way any System or FTP user can only access the server SFTP and FTPS.

As an administrator you can restrict the creation of additional FTP users via the Service Plan. However the main System User for a subscription (webspace) will always be created as it's the System User associated with a subscription. System Users always have FTP and SFTP (and FTPS) access.

If you're not the administrator of the server, than there isn't much you can do to restrict this.