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Q) Help! What are the security implications referred to in the "chroot_local_user" option?
A) Firstly note that other ftp daemons have the same implications. It is a generic problem. The problem isn't too severe, but it is this: Some people have FTP user accounts which are not trusted to have full shell access. If these accounts can also upload files, there is a small risk. A bad user now has control of the filesystem root, which is their home directory. The ftp daemon might cause some config file to be read - e.g. /etc/some_file. With chroot(), this file is now under the control of the user. vsftpd is careful in this area. But, the system's libc might want to open locale config files or other settings...