[cobalt-users] ftp security

[Jim Dory <jim_dory@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm running a raq4r as a email/web server for our small city government. 
I have it on the public interface of a firewall. (3 interfaces.. 
public/private/exterior.)

I leave the ftp server off, and I have to go in and turn it on whenever 
I want to update a webpage, because of security concerns - right or 
wrong. I'm not the most informed of admins and am relatively new to it, 
but am learning. Now I'm going to introduce a web camera to our site and 
as far as I know, it updates the camera images via ftp. Perhaps there's 
a http way to do it.. (looking at Axis cameras as they have their own 
webservers, use linux, etc.) But,

My first question is should I be paranoid about leaving the ftp server 
running in its pretty much unaltered state, and
second: if yes, what security steps can be taken to lock things down.

I will spend some time in the archives since I remember some discussion 
of this.. but it was usually something like chroot jail or something 
that seemed over my head at the time - and probably still is. Just 
wondering how much time I should spend on looking for a solution for 
security - if it is even a concern - regarding ftp. Just casting for a 
quick answer.

Thanks, Jim D.

http://www.nomealaska.org