Before submitting a username and password, all users are presented with a greeting banner. By default, this banner includes version information useful to crackers trying to identify weaknesses in a system.

To change the greeting banner for vsftpd, add the following directive to the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file:

         ftpd_banner=<insert_greeting_here>
      

Replace <insert_greeting_here> in the above directive with the text of the greeting message.

For mutli-line banners, it is best to use a banner file. To simplify management of multiple banners, place all banners in a new directory called /etc/banners/. The banner file for FTP connections in this example is /etc/banners/ftp.msg. Below is an example of what such a file may look like:

         #################################################### # Hello, all activity on ftp.example.com is logged.# #################################################### 
      

To reference this greeting banner file for vsftpd, add the following directive to the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file:

         banner_file=/etc/banners/ftp.msg 
      

It also is possible to send additional banners to incoming connections using TCP wrappers as described in Section 5.1.1.1, “TCP Wrappers and Connection Banners”.