Apache Module mod_proxy_ftp

Available Languages: en

Description:	FTP support module for `mod_proxy`
Status:	Extension
Module Identifier:	proxy_ftp_module
Source File:	proxy_ftp.c

Summary

This module requires the service of mod_proxy. It provides support for the proxying FTP sites. Note that FTP support is currently limited to the GET method.

Thus, in order to get the ability of handling FTP proxy requests, mod_proxy and mod_proxy_ftp have to be present in the server.

Warning

Do not enable proxying until you have secured your server. Open proxy servers are dangerous both to your network and to the Internet at large.

Directives

This module provides no directives.

Topics

Why doesn't file type xxx download via FTP?
How can I force an FTP ASCII download of File xxx?
How can I do FTP upload?
How can I access FTP files outside of my home directory?
How can I hide the FTP cleartext password in my browser's URL line?

Why doesn't file type `xxx` download via FTP?

You probably don't have that particular file type defined as application/octet-stream in your proxy's mime.types configuration file. A useful line can be

application/octet-stream   bin dms lha lzh exe class tgz taz

Alternatively you may prefer to default everything to binary:

DefaultType application/octet-stream

How can I force an FTP ASCII download of File `xxx`?

In the rare situation where you must download a specific file using the FTP ASCII transfer method (while the default transfer is in binary mode), you can override mod_proxy's default by suffixing the request with ;type=a to force an ASCII transfer. (FTP Directory listings are always executed in ASCII mode, however.)

How can I do FTP upload?

Currently, only GET is supported for FTP in mod_proxy. You can of course use HTTP upload (POST or PUT) through an Apache proxy.

How can I access FTP files outside of my home directory?

An FTP URI is interpreted relative to the home directory of the user who is logging in. Alas, to reach higher directory levels you cannot use /../, as the dots are interpreted by the browser and not actually sent to the FTP server. To address this problem, the so called Squid %2f hack was implemented in the Apache FTP proxy; it is a solution which is also used by other popular proxy servers like the Squid Proxy Cache. By prepending /%2f to the path of your request, you can make such a proxy change the FTP starting directory to / (instead of the home directory). For example, to retrieve the file /etc/motd, you would use the URL:

ftp://user@host/%2f/etc/motd

How can I hide the FTP cleartext password in my browser's URL line?

To log in to an FTP server by username and password, Apache uses different strategies. In absense of a user name and password in the URL altogether, Apache sends an anonymous login to the FTP server, i.e.,

user: anonymous password: apache_proxy@

This works for all popular FTP servers which are configured for anonymous access.

For a personal login with a specific username, you can embed the user name into the URL, like in:

ftp://username@host/myfile

If the FTP server asks for a password when given this username (which it should), then Apache will reply with a 401 (Authorization required) response, which causes the Browser to pop up the username/password dialog. Upon entering the password, the connection attempt is retried, and if successful, the requested resource is presented. The advantage of this procedure is that your browser does not display the password in cleartext (which it would if you had used

ftp://username:password@host/myfile

in the first place).

Note

The password which is transmitted in such a way is not encrypted on its way. It travels between your browser and the Apache proxy server in a base64-encoded cleartext string, and between the Apache proxy and the FTP server as plaintext. You should therefore think twice before accessing your FTP server via HTTP (or before accessing your personal files via FTP at all!) When using unsecure channels, an eavesdropper might intercept your password on its way.