syslog + chroot + ftpd

[Jeff Beadles]

luis at lutetia.rice.edu (Luis Soltero) writes:

>has anyone noticed that syslog stops logging when ftpd logs in an
>anonymous ftp user?  i have tracked the problem to the chroot system
>call. prior to chroot() syslog works as advertized. once the chroot()
>is executed inside tftpd, however, syslog calls no longer get
>recorded. 

>any ideas?

Yes, I've seen this many a time.  The problem is that /dev/log can not be
accessed after the chroot.

Here's what I've done to work around it here...

Reboot, and stop the boot process in single user mode.

( replace /usr2/ftp with the home directory of your ftp account)

Then,
% rm -f /dev/log
% mkdir /usr2/ftp/dev
% chmod 711 /usr2/ftp/dev
% chown root /usr2/ftp/dev
% ln -s /usr2/ftp/dev/log /dev/log

Look to see where your "syslogd" process is started.  Mine is in "/etc/rc.net".
Change it so the syslogd is started as:

/etc/syslogd -p /usr2/ftp/dev/log

Now, continue the boot process and check the results.

This way the logfile is within the chroot'ed environment, and can still be
accessed.  IMHO, it's a hack, but I didn't see a easier solution...


Of course, if you do this you're on your own.  I take no responsibility what so
ever. :-)

	-Jeff
-- 
Jeff Beadles	jeff at onion.pdx.com  jeff at quark.wv.tek.com