[suse-security] ftp server "best practice"

[Daniel Nilsson <dnilsson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

I'm tasked to add an ftp server to our companys "internet presence", the 
ftp server will need to have accounts on it since the data is not for 
the public. Currently our setup consists of a number of Linux firewalls 
for our 4 office locations that then in turn connects these 4 office 
locations using ipsec. In addition, at our main office location we have 
a DMZ with a webserver.

The ftp server should be located at the main office, but I could use 
some recommendations on where to place this server. From reading mailing 
lists I understand the issue of active vs. passive ftp and placing the 
ftp server in the DMZ. I don't think I can ask our customers to toggle 
the active/passive flag of their ftp client since are customers are 
usually not very computer savvy people. Putting an ftp server in the DMZ 
that supports both active and passive ftp seems tricky, does anyone have 
a recipe of how to make that work (using SuSEFirewall 2 on the firewall 
machine).

Other options include using the firewall machine itself as the ftp 
server, but that makes me very nervous. I was leaning toward using the 
vsftpd, but regardless how secure that is by design I'm still not to 
comfortable using the firewall as the ftp server (what if the ftpd is 
hacked ???).

The last option is to place the ftp server outside the company LAN and 
make it a standalone machine with it's own firewall. This would probably 
be the best solution in terms of company LAN security, but the only 
thing I don't like about this solution is that I will have to administer 
accounts on this machine. I was hoping to be able to hook up to an LDAP 
server that is available inside the firewall (not in the DMZ).

Any thoughts / recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
--
Daniel Nilsson


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