Creating an FTP account via SSH

Out of the box, your server only has the root superuser — and connecting to FTP as root is a bad idea. FTP transmits credentials in plain text, so exposing your root account over it is a serious security risk.

If your server doesn't have a control panel (cPanel, BeAdmin, aaPanel, CloudPanel, etc.), you can create a dedicated FTP user manually over SSH. Here's how.

1. Install ProFTPD (if it isn't already)

Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install proftpd-basic -y

CentOS / Rocky / AlmaLinux:

sudo yum install proftpd -y

Once installed, start the service and set it to launch on boot:

sudo systemctl start proftpd
sudo systemctl enable proftpd

2. Jail users to their home directory (recommended)

This step prevents FTP users from wandering outside their designated folder — a must for any multi-user setup.

Open the ProFTPD config file:

• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo nano /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf
• CentOS/Rocky: sudo nano /etc/proftpd.conf

Add this line at the end of the file:

DefaultRoot ~

Save, then restart ProFTPD:

sudo systemctl restart proftpd

3. Create the FTP user

An FTP user doesn't need shell access — in fact, granting it would be a security hole. We'll assign /bin/false as their shell to keep things locked down.

1. Register /bin/false as a valid shell (if it isn't already):

echo '/bin/false' | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

2. Create the user:

sudo useradd ftpuser -d /home/ftpuser -m -s /bin/false

3. Set a password:

sudo passwd ftpuser

You can replace ftpuser with any username you like. The home directory /home/ftpuser will be created automatically.

4. Lock down permissions

To prevent the user from modifying anything outside their designated upload folder, tighten the permissions like this:

sudo chmod 555 /home/ftpuser
sudo mkdir /home/ftpuser/upload
sudo chown ftpuser:ftpuser /home/ftpuser/upload

The user will now only be able to upload files into the upload subfolder — nothing else is writable.

A few things to keep in mind

• Whenever possible, prefer SFTP over FTP — it encrypts the connection, including your credentials.
• Never use root for FTP connections, under any circumstances.
• After creating the user, test the connection right away using an FTP client like FileZilla or WinSCP.
• If you need to manage multiple FTP users, a control panel (aaPanel, BeAdmin, CloudPanel, cPanel, etc.) will save you a lot of time.