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Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: Synquest on January 31, 2005, 03:18:04 AM

Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: Synquest on January 31, 2005, 03:18:04 AM: Hi everyone,
FTP'ing is no problem, but I would like to do so in a secure fashion. I've tried several ftp clients including the latest WS_FTP. None can connect securely. When I try to connect using Winscp I get the error "Cannot initialize SFTP protocol, is the host running a SFTP server?" In remote access settings I have secure shell enabled and ftp access from the internet enabled. Any ideas?
Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: kmccarn on January 31, 2005, 05:16:39 AM: I get that error when I haven't enabled ssh in the remote access panel...

Can you ssh into the box ??

Hope that helps.
Title: ssh enabled...
Post by: Synquest on January 31, 2005, 05:47:23 AM: ssh is enabled, also I have since discovered that I can sftp with winscp if I log in as root, but not as admin or any of the user accounts....
Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: cc_skavenger on January 31, 2005, 07:40:03 AM: only root has ssh or sftp access....for security reasons.
That is what I have been told.
Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: kmccarn on January 31, 2005, 01:35:40 PM: Ahh yes - the shell access problem.

Try this:

http://www.dungog.net/sme/files/shellaccess/

You can install the shell access rpm and grant users access.

8-)
Title: oookkkkk......
Post by: Synquest on February 01, 2005, 12:34:16 AM: Cool. Now I can't FTP at all. :-? I have a new option in server-manager to enable user shell access. And it seems to work.....but after installing e-smith-usershellaccess-0.1-3.noarch.rpm and rssh-2.2.1-2.0.rh7.dag.i386.rpm all ftp connections are refused, whether secure or not, for all users (even root). I'm gonna reinstall SME and try again.

Here we go....
Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: cc_skavenger on February 01, 2005, 01:15:23 AM: Just curious, what version of SME are you trying this on?? If 6.5Beta2, this contrib might not work on it.
Title: version 6.0
Post by: Synquest on February 01, 2005, 02:30:39 AM: It's version 6.0.
Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: kmccarn on February 01, 2005, 02:56:39 PM: Gee - it works fine for me on one of my 6.0 systems.
Title: Back where I started....
Post by: Synquest on February 02, 2005, 01:49:27 AM: Hey...thanks for all the help! I sure appreciate it. Ok, I've reinstalled SME 6.0 and ftp works again. But I can only ftp securely from the internet as root. I am told if I install e-smith-usershellaccess-0.1-3.noarch.rpm I can enable sftp for users as well. This, I think is where I screwed the works. Ftp did not work at all after I did this. In what folder should I place this file, and what is the syntax to execute and install e-smith-usershellaccess-0.1-3.noarch.rpm? I believe the syntax to be "rpm -Uvh e-smith-usershellaccess-0.1-3.noarch.rpm", is this correct?

Jeff
Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: egerards on February 02, 2005, 12:42:00 PM: Those of you using rssh-2.2.1-2.0.rh7.dag.i386.rpm be aware of the following (taken from http://www.pizzashack.org/rssh/ ):

Quote
Important Security Notice:

All releases of rssh prior to v2.2.2 contain a format string vulnerability in log.c, the syslog() logging module. Ironic, since one of the main reasons I wrote this module, instead of just using syslog() directly, was to prevent format string vulnerabilities... Sigh. Sorry guys. Please see the security page for more details. All users are urged to upgrade to the latest release immediately!

I realize that rssh 2.2.2 might not be available (yet) for RH 7.X systems, but just thought that I should let everybody know...
Title: Cannot initialize SFTP protocol....
Post by: kmccarn on February 02, 2005, 02:06:10 PM: Yeah - the rpm -Uvh is correct.

Then access server manager and give the user in question bash as a shell access.

Then use winSCP or gftp (ssh2) and login as that person.

Shouldn't need ftp turned on at all.
Title: It's working now...
Post by: Synquest on February 02, 2005, 11:43:47 PM: Thanks for the help! SME is doing what I need it to do.