ProFTPD mini-HOWTO - Filters

## Using Filters

ProFTPD supports the ability to "filter" the FTP commands it receives from the client. These filters are written as regular expressions. This means that while the filters can be very powerful, they can also be complex and harder to construct.

First, there are the `AllowFilter` and `DenyFilter` configuration directives. These configuration directives are used to set filters on every FTP command. If an `AllowFilter` is used, the command parameters must match the given filter, otherwise the command will be denied. If a `DenyFilter` is used, the command parameters must not match the given filter, otherwise the command will be denied. If both `AllowFilter` and `DenyFilter` are used, then the `AllowFilter` will be checked first.

Second, there are some special filter configuration directives aimed at those FTP commands that cause changes to files and directories on the server system: `PathAllowFilter` and `PathDenyFilter`. Like `AllowFilter` and `DenyFilter`, the `Allow` filter, if present, is checked first, then a `DenyFilter`, if present. `PathAllowFilter` and `PathDenyFilter` are checked after the `AllowFilter` and `DenyFilter` directives. These `Path` filters are only applied to the following FTP commands: `DELE`, `MKD/XMKD`, `RMD/XRMD`, `RNFR`, `RNTO`, `STOR`, `STOU`, and to the `SITE` commands `CHGRP` and `CHMOD`. Note that using both `PathAllowFilter` and `PathDenyFilter` at the same time is not a good idea; only one filter is generally needed.

One property that often catches the unwary administrator is the fact that `proftpd` only operates on the first `Filter` directive defined in the configuration file; it does not cycle through multiple `Filter` directives. This is because multiple regular expressions can be combined into a single (albeit more complex) regular expression. The alternation metacharacter is helpful in creating such combined regular expressions. For example, if you had the following in your `proftpd.conf`:

      PathAllowFilter \.jpg$
      PathAllowFilter \.jpeg$
      PathAllowFilter \.mpeg$
      PathAllowFilter \.mpg$
      PathAllowFilter \.mp3$

only the first `PathAllowFilter` would be enforced. To enforce all Filter simultaneously, use:

      PathAllowFilter \.(jpg|jpgeg|mpeg|mpg|mp3)$

Matches are case-sensitive! Also note that if you surround your regular expression in quotation (") marks, any backslash will itself need to be escaped; ProFTPD's configuration parser interprets backslashes inside of quoted strings a little differently. Thus, the example above would look like this:

      PathAllowFilter "\\.(jpg|jpgeg|mpeg|mpg|mp3)$"

if using quotation marks.

Another characteristic to keep in mind is that Filters are only applied to FTP command parameters, not to the FTP command itself. Most of the time, this is not a problem. It would be useful sometimes, though, to be able to filter parameters of commands other than those filtered by the `Path` filter directives. It would be an easy change to the source code; however, there is no feature request for the ability to do this on bugs.proftpd.org with a good justification for such a feature. If you can think of one, please open such a request.

When developing your Filter directives, it often helps to keep an eye on the server debugging output, to see how well your filters are being applied.

Examples
To prevent clients from using paths which may contain non-printable characters (e.g. CR, LF, VB, etc), you can use the following `PathDenyFilter` pattern:

      PathDenyFilter [^[:print:]]

Alternatively, you could use a `PathAllowFilter` which only allows printable characters in paths:

      PathAllowFilter [[:print:]]

And if you want to prevent spaces and tabs from appearing in paths, you can use:

      PathDenyFilter [[:blank:]]

In ProFTPD 1.3.3rc1 and later, you can use the `AllowFilter` and `DenyFilter` configuration directives inside of `<Limit>` sections, so that those `Filter` directives only apply to the FTP commands listed in the `<Limit>` section. This means you can specify regular expression filters for the arguments for specific commands. For example, you may want to configure a directory that only allows uploads of files with specific extensions. You could use `PathAllowFilter` for this -- but `PathAllowFilter` also applies to the `MKD` command, and you might want to allow users to create subdirectories in your special directory. Thus you only want your regular expression to apply to the `STOR` command in your directory. Below is an example of how to do this using `AllowFilter`:

      <Directory /path/to/dir>
        <Limit STOR>
          Order deny, allow
          AllowFilter \.ext$
        </Limit>
      </Directory>

The key is the `Order` directive; without it, the configuration will not work as you expect.

Last Updated: $Date: 2009/09/14 17:46:22 $