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I'd like to configure a linux box (probably an Ubuntu server) so that I can setup users, so that it is possible to upload/download files via rsync/scp/sftp, but it should not be possible to ssh to the machine and get an interactive terminal.

Is this possible? How would I go about configuring that? I know that all I'll need the ssh server to be ON, for rsync/scp/sftp to work, but I guess there should be a way to prevent the direct login.

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  • I don't think that's possible coz you need a username and pass to use rsync, whoever has the username and pass can login, even if you create an ssh key just for rsync, won't work, would love to be proven wrong though
    – Lynob
    Sep 5, 2013 at 9:29
  • It's possible to allow only SFTP with Match User ... / ForceCommand Internal-sftp in sshd_config. But to allow several programs i can't help.
    – mveroone
    Sep 5, 2013 at 9:36
  • You need a chroot jail, SourceForge implements a very good one but I can't find documentation on it.
    – justbrowsing
    Sep 5, 2013 at 9:54

3 Answers 3

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Set the users' shell to rssh. From the manpage:

rssh - restricted secure shell allowing only scp and/or sftp

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  • This does not allow rsync, only sftp.
    – Agoston Horvath
    Apr 1, 2019 at 8:21
  • I can test this later on, however the documentation states: > It now also includes support for rdist, rsync, and cvs
    – SlightlyCuban
    Apr 1, 2019 at 14:18
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    I stand corrected: it does support rsync, but by default it is disabled on ubuntu. However, there is a config file /etc/rssh.conf where one can really deeply finetune rssh. Thanks for the info!
    – Agoston Horvath
    Apr 2, 2019 at 10:10
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    Just calling your attention to this (old!) answer, that rssh has now apparently been abandoned, and it's being removed from distros. I suggest editing in a note that this is no longer a good solution — or of course do a more extensive update to provide a current solution (I, unfortunately, do not have one to recommend).
    – derobert
    Dec 4, 2019 at 4:48
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    Maybe GNU Rush? puszcza.gnu.org.ua/software/rush
    – Jim Paris
    Dec 20, 2019 at 21:23
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If you only need to allow rsync, the developers of rsync provide the rrsync script to solve your problem. It is available from here: http://ftp.samba.org/pub/unpacked/rsync/support/rrsync

You just need to add something like this to your .authorized_keys file. This example allows read only (-ro) access to /some/directory/:

command="/path/to/rrsync -ro /some/directory/",no-agent-forwarding,no-port-forwarding,no-pty,no-user-rc,no-X11-forwarding ssh-rsa AAA...

A more throughout explanation and example is available here: https://www.guyrutenberg.com/2014/01/14/restricting-ssh-access-to-rsync/

Update: This is NOT SECURE for write access until this bug is fixed: https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11879

As long as this bug persists, please only use rrsync in read only mode (-ro).

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You can use a pseudo-shell like scponly and set this for the users you don't want to login directly.

Another possible way is to set the login command in the authorized keys file, but that only works if your users login via SSH-keys and not via password.

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  • one potential issue with the authorized_keys is if the restricted user somehow manages to overwrite the file, to where it no longer imposes that restriction
    – ᴍᴇʜᴏᴠ
    Jan 15, 2020 at 13:11

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