Pure ftpd ошибка 530

In our role as Website Support engineers for online businesses, managing FTP servers and resolving the related errors, is a task we usually perform.

“530 Login authentication failed” is a common error reported by users in cPanel Pure-ftpd servers. This error occurs when the FTP server is unable to verify whether the user’s login details are correct.

The error message usually shows when FTP users try to establish a session with the server by submitting their username and password in FTP clients such as Filezilla.

What causes “530 Login authentication failed” error?

While debugging 530 login errors in FTP, we’ve see that this error happens in Pure-ftpd servers due to 2 main reasons. Here, we’ll see how we resolve those.

1. Incorrect login details used

Login details used by users for FTP access include their username and password. If these credentials are given wrongly in the FTP client, it can give a 530 login error in FTP.

In cPanel, there is a default user account and additional FTP accounts associated with each domain. For default user account, the ‘username’ is the FTP login name.

But for additional FTP accounts, the FTP login name is of the format ‘username@domain.com’. If the FTP username entered is not in this specific format, login failures happen.

“530 Login authentication failed” also happens due to wrong password. Even a single additional space in the password can cause a login failure. Many account owners tend to overlook that aspect and struggle with 530 errors.

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2. Password database corruption

Pure-ftpd stores user passwords in an encrypted form. They are stored as MD5 strings in its database. cPanel updates or FTP server changes may accidentally corrupt this database.

When the password database gets corrupted, it can lead to a server-wide issue. In such instances, all the FTP users would be unable to login to the server and end up seeing “530 Login authentication failed” errors.

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How to fix “530 Login authentication failed” error?

To establish a successful FTP session, users should make sure that the username, hostname and password are given correctly in the FTP client such as Filezilla, Cute-FTP, FlashFXP, etc.

If the password is not working, then a password reset would be required for that user account. But in case of a password database corruption, we perform server wide actions such as:

• Sync the FTP passwords via WHM or manually, if the former fails. This would update the corrupted passwords with the proper ones.
• Forcefully sync the FTP passwords. By switching the FTP server from Pure-ftp to Proftpd and then switching back, we recover the password database.

Our experience resolving the different issues helps us to restore customers’ FTP service in no time. Asking the right questions upfront, and giving the solution in a few minutes reduces customer hold time and enhances customer delight.

To add on..

When users try to FTP to their account, they usually use their domain name as the ‘FTP host’ in the FTP client such as Filezilla. If this domain name is not resolving correctly, it would give 530 errors.

In addition to username/password validation, confirming that there are no DNS errors for the domain, is a vital part of our FTP error trouble-shooting process.

We also update and patch the FTP servers with the latest secure version to avoid a hack or data loss. Encrypting FTP with TLS is another security policy we follow to ensure data security.

Our Support Specialists routinely help server owners ensure seamless web services for their customers. If you’d like to know how you can better support your users, we’d happy be to talk to you.

# sudo -s
 # apt-get install pure-ftpd pureadmin

 
 Create the user and group accounts:

 
 
 # groupadd ftpgroup
 # useradd -g ftpgroup -d /dev/null -s /etc ftpuser
 # pure-pw useradd NAME -u ftpuser -d /DIRECTORY
    Type in the password when prompted for the new user twice.

 
 NAME and DIRECTORY can be whatever you want them to be.

 
 Create the database and make sure that the pure-ftpd configuration strictly uses the pdb file for managing accounts:

 
 # pure-pw mkdb
 # ln -s /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/PureDB /etc/pure-ftpd/auth/PureDB
 # gedit /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/PAMAuthentication
    Change yes into no

 
 Make sure that a backup file (.PAMAuthentication~) isn’t created because it will create a conflict when trying to restart service. Using PAM can allow public access to administrative accounts using pure-ftpd, that’s why I disable it within pure-ftpd. I prefer it off so I can strictly use virtual accounts maintained within the pdb file.

 
 Finally it’s time to enable the pdb file and yes you do have to stop the server in order to avoid errors stating that the port is already in use.

 
 # /etc/init.d/pure-ftpd stop
 # /usr/sbin/pure-ftpd -j -lpuredb:/etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.pdb &
 # /etc/init.d/pure-ftpd start

Working through FTP is very comfortable and fast. This protocol is used to exchange data, files, and folders. This standard is especially popular among webmasters who use FTP clients to download files to the server. But sometimes you get FileZilla «530 login authentication failed» error and you are not able to connect. In this article, we will look at 530 error, which one day your FileZilla client might appear when trying to log in to the host.

What is the reason for the 530 Login authentication failed?

FileZilla 530 Login authentication failed usually occurs when you are using whether an incorrect username, password, hostname, or connection port.
The first thing you need to do is make sure you are using the relevant and correct username and password when accessing the server. If one of those is incorrect — you’ll definitely get 530 error, so double-check if you are using the correct credentials. If you are 100% sure that you are using valid credentials — check if the domain is pointed correctly to the server and reset the password.

FileZilla error?

On the other hand, the problem can be inside FileZilla. Perhaps the login authentication error 530 failed because you have activated an unusual encryption mode in the settings. Maybe during the last session, you’ve changed the settings for the sake of interest, which eventually results incorrect login 530. Then go to the settings in the «Encryption» section and set «Use simple FTP». And although this is not entirely correct in terms of security, it’s better than not accessing the server at all.

cPanel FTP

If you are using cPanel — there may be two types of FTP accounts: default and additional (pointed to a certain domain). For the default account, the login to FTP is the same as the username. But the additional FTP accounts are in the format «[email protected]», so make sure you are using relevant login details in cPanel.

FTP database corruption

Pure-ftp accounts and users’ passwords are stored in an encrypted database. It may be corrupted due to incorrect cPanel updates or inaccurate FTP server changes. Database corruption may cause even bigger problems, than 530 login authentication errors. The fastest way to solve this problem is switching from pure-ftp to pro-ftp and back — this recovers the database with passwords.
And if you are using cPanel / WHM — you can sync the passwords and replace the corrupted database with a relevant one.
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In conclusion:

When you get «530 Login authentication failed» error — the first thing you should do is to check if you are using relevant credentials. Also check that you didn’t copy any extra space or symbol with the password. If you are using relevant credentials, and still get 530 error — try to reset the password. If nothing above does not help — then the problem is in the database and you already know what to do

Our support team is helping server owners with different errors every day. With our proactive server management services you’ll forget about «530 Login authentication failed» as it’s a routine error that we are able to determinate and solve very fast.