Cobian Backup 11 and vsFTPd on Linux

Questions about Cobian Backup 11 (Gravity)
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Cobian Backup 11 and vsFTPd on Linux

Post by ABPAM »

Hello, everyone! First post on the forum, hope I will get the help needed :)

I have a Windows Server 2019 machine with a Cobian Backup 11 Gravity running on it that is supposed to make automatic backups to a vsFTPd running on an Ubuntu Server 22.04. I am no Windows user and have no expertise on this OS family. The system administrator installed Cobian on the machine and my responsibility is to setup an FTP server and connect the Cobian to it. I have access to both machines and can tweak the configuration of the vsFTPd. The thing is that I am not familiar with Cobian mechanisms of connecting and uploading files to FTP. Here is my vsFTPd configuration, can someome tell me what settings should I make in Cobian for this to work?

Code: Select all

# Example config file /etc/vsftpd.conf
#
# The default compiled in settings are fairly paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
# Please see vsftpd.conf.5 for all compiled in defaults.
#
# READ THIS: This example file is NOT an exhaustive list of vsftpd options.
# Please read the vsftpd.conf.5 manual page to get a full idea of vsftpd's
# capabilities.
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=NO
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=YES
#
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
#local_umask=022
#
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
#anon_upload_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
#anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
#
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES
#
# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
xferlog_enable=YES
#
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
#chown_uploads=YES
#chown_username=whoever
#
# You may override where the log file goes if you like. The default is shown
# below.
#xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log
#
# If you want, you can have your log file in standard ftpd xferlog format.
# Note that the default log file location is /var/log/xferlog in this case.
#xferlog_std_format=YES
#
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
#
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
#
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
#
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
#
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that on some FTP servers, ASCII support allows a denial of service
# attack (DoS) via the command "SIZE /big/file" in ASCII mode. vsftpd
# predicted this attack and has always been safe, reporting the size of the
# raw file.
# ASCII mangling is a horrible feature of the protocol.
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
#
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
ftpd_banner=VIST Accounting Archive FTP Service
#
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd.banned_emails
#
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
# (Warning! chroot'ing can be very dangerous. If using chroot, make sure that
# the user does not have write access to the top level directory within the
# chroot)
#chroot_local_user=YES
#chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
#
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES
#
# When "listen" directive is enabled, vsftpd runs in standalone mode and
# listens on IPv4 sockets. This directive cannot be used in conjunction
# with the listen_ipv6 directive.
listen=YES
#
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. To listen on IPv4 and IPv6
# sockets, you must run two copies of vsftpd with two configuration files.
# Make sure, that one of the listen options is commented !!
#listen_ipv6=YES
allow_writeable_chroot=YES

pasv_min_port=40000
pasv_max_port=40000

userlist_enable=YES
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.userlist
userlist_deny=NO

#user_sub_token=$USER
#local_root=/home/$USER/upload

chroot_local_user=YES
user_config_dir=/etc/vsftpd/users


ssl_enable=YES
allow_anon_ssl=NO
force_local_data_ssl=YES
force_local_logins_ssl=YES

ssl_tlsv1=YES
ssl_sslv2=NO
ssl_sslv3=NO

require_ssl_reuse=NO
ssl_ciphers=HIGH

rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem

seccomp_sandbox=NO
isolate_network=NO
If I missed a detail, just ask me, I will answer as fast as possible :)
Thanks in advance!
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cobian
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Re: Cobian Backup 11 and vsFTPd on Linux

Post by cobian »

Host: your host:
Port: 21 if Explicit, 990 if Implicit
SSl: Tlsv1
--
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Cobian Backup's creator
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Re: Cobian Backup 11 and vsFTPd on Linux

Post by ABPAM »

Thank you for the quick reply!

I have a few more questions though :)

1. How to determine if TLS is "Explicit" or "Implicit"? When connecting via FileZilla (tested and works) I set "Encryption" to "Use explicit FTP over TLS if available", does that mean the method is "Explicit"? And is that related to the server configuration at all, or it depends only on the client (Cobian Backup or FileZilla) to decide?

2. What settings should I set in "SSL Settings" dialog? "SSL Method" is set to "TLSv1" and I guess this is fine, but what about the other parameters: Authentication type, Data port protection, SSL mode, Verify depth? Also, when connecting to the servier via FileZilla, the logs say: "Directory listing of "/" successful". Does that mean, that Cobian task's "Initial directory" should be set to "/"? The vsFTPd user is chrooted.

3. I use different port numbers, might this be a problem?

Thank you!
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cobian
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Re: Cobian Backup 11 and vsFTPd on Linux

Post by cobian »

1, Yes that is Explicit and depends on the server configuration. Implicit uses often (bu not always the port 990)

2- If the user is crooted then leaving the Initial directory empty should do the trick.
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Luis Cobian
Cobian Backup's creator
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Re: Cobian Backup 11 and vsFTPd on Linux

Post by ABPAM »

Hi, sorry for the late response, couldn't test your suggested solution until today.
I set the SSL settings as follows:
Transport Level Security: Explicit
SSL Method: TLSv1
Authentication type: Auto
Data port protection: Clear
SSL Mode: Unassigned
Verify depth: 0
All other checkboxes are unchecked.

If "Initial directory (absolute path)" is left empty this is what I get when I click test:

Code: Select all

    Changing the remote directory to ""
    ERR Couldn't change the remote directory to "": Failed to change directory.

    ERR Some errors were detected when testing the FTP settings
        FTP client disconnected
However, when I change the "Initial directory (absolute path)" to "/" (which is the root directory of the chrooted FTP user) I get:

Code: Select all

    Changing the remote directory to "/"
    The remote directory has been changed to "/"
    Creating the remote directory "Cobian Backup 11 test directory-2022-09-22 12;08;24"
    The remote directory "Cobian Backup 11 test directory-2022-09-22 12;08;24" was successfully created 
    Changing the remote directory to "Cobian Backup 11 test directory-2022-09-22 12;08;24"
    The remote directory has been changed to "Cobian Backup 11 test directory-2022-09-22 12;08;24"
    Uploading the test file C:\Users\(A Windows User)\AppData\Local\Temp\Test file.txt...
    (Here it makes a little pause of about 15s)
    ERR An error occurred while uploading the test file "C:\Users\(A Windows User)\AppData\Local\Temp\Test file.txt": Data connections must be encrypted.

    ERR Some errors were detected when testing the FTP settings
    FTP client disconnected
What am I doing wrong?
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cobian
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Re: Cobian Backup 11 and vsFTPd on Linux

Post by cobian »

OK, try with the initial directory

/home/<your user name>
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Cobian Backup's creator
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