Trying to setup a SFTP user with limited access.

##What I want to do

I want to add a second user, but restrict what the user can do:

• Only access a single folder called newsletters, it will be in the public folder.
• The user needs to be able to upload, delete and rename files via SFTP
• The user must not be able to navigate away from the newsletters, folder

This is the full path to the newsletters folder: /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/newsletters

##What I’ve done so far

I’ve followed this guide How do I restrict a user to a specific directory? by Maxamilian Demian (@Maxoplata), there’s a great reply by Jonathan Tittle (@jtittle).

However, I’m still having problems logging in via SFTP

I’ve listed out all the steps I’ve done - hopefully someone with more experience will be able to spot my error(s)!

##1. Created a new user

1. Logged in as root
2. Created a new user called user-sftp-only 2. adduser user-sftp-only
3. I can check the user has been created by running 4. compgen -u 5. user-sftp-only is at the bottom of the list
4. I can also see what the path of the user is and shell access by running:
5. grep user-sftp-only /etc/passwd outputs:

user-sftp-only:x:1004:1007:,,,:/home/user-sftp-only:/bin/bash

##2. Give new user root privileges

6. Give new user user-sftp-only root privileges 2. gpasswd -a user-sftp-only sudo
7. Logout as root

##3. Create a new directory

1. Logged in as user-sftp-only
2. Create a new directory in public called newsletters: 4. cd /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/ 5. Followed by: 6. sudo mkdir newsletters

##4. Check directory permissions

1. Still inside the public folder from the previous step, I run ls -al
2. Shows me this:

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 serverpilot serverpilot 4096 Mar  7 15:26 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 serverpilot serverpilot 4096 Mar  3 16:22 ..
-rw-r--r--+ 1 serverpilot serverpilot 3393 Mar  3 16:22 index.php
drwxrwxr-x+ 2 root        root        4096 Mar  7 15:26 newsletters

From reading various DigitalOcean posts, I know I need to create a group and assign my new user user-sftp-only to that group, Then change root root to the name of my user and group.

##5. Create a new group

1. Logged in as user-sftp-only
2. sudo groupadd group-sftp-only
3. I can check the group has been created by running 4. compgen -g 5. group-sftp-only is at the bottom of the list

Note: I notice my new user called user-sftp-only is also in this list?

##6. Add user to the group

1. Logged in as root
2. Added the user user-sftp-only to a group called group-sftp-only
3. Doing this means it’s no longer possible to SSH in as user user-sftp-only

usermod -g group-sftp-only -d /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/newsletters -s /sbin/nologin user-sftp-only

• -gspecifies the group name
• -d specifies the users home directory
• -s specifies shell access (/sbin/nologin means SSH is disabled for this user)

##7. Verify the changes to the user

1. Logged in as root
2. grep user-sftp-only /etc/passwd
3. Shows me:

user-sftp-only:x:1001:1004:,,,:/srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/newsletters:/sbin/nologin

##8. Modify SSH Configuration to allow SFTP

1. Logged in as root
2. nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
3. Commented out this line:
4. #Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server -l INFO
5. At the very bottom of sshd_config added this:

Subsystem sftp internal-sftp
    Match group group-sftp-only
    ChrootDirectory %h
    ForceCommand internal-sftp

##9. Restart SSH

1. Still logged in as root
2. service ssh restart

##10. Modify permissions

1. Still logged in as root
2. This is the home directory for user user-sftp-only
3. /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/newsletters
4. Used this to make sure the home directory is owned by the user and group

chown -R user-sftp-only:group-sftp-only /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/newsletters

##11. Verify ownership change

1. Still logged in as root
2. cd /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/
3. ls -al shows me:

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 serverpilot    serverpilot     4096 Mar  7 15:26 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 serverpilot    serverpilot     4096 Mar  3 16:22 ..
-rw-r--r--+ 1 serverpilot    serverpilot     3393 Mar  3 16:22 index.php
drwxrwxr-x+ 2 user-sftp-only group-sftp-only 4096 Mar  7 15:26 newsletters

2. cd /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/test-app/public/newsletters
3. ls -al shows me:

drwxrwxr-x+ 2 user-sftp-only group-sftp-only 4096 Mar  7 15:26 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 serverpilot    serverpilot     4096 Mar  7 15:26 ..

That’s where I’m up to. However, I can’t login in as my new user user-sftp-only via SFTP

Not sure where I’m going wrong - I’m new to this!

##EDIT

I can login via SFTP with another user name - Using a FTP client called Transmit.

If I get info on the folder newsletters everything matches what Terminal is telling me…

Here’s a screenshot