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Internet protocol suite
Application layer
BGP DHCP DHCP6 DNS FTP
HTTP IMAP IRC LDAP MGCP
NNTP NTP POP RIP RPC RTP
RTSP SIP SMTP SNMP SOCKS
SSH Telne TLS/SSL XMPP (moe)
Transport layer
TCP UDP DCCP SCTP RSVP ECN
(moe)
Internet layer
IP ( IP4 IP6 ) ICMP ICMP6
IGMP IPec (moe)
Link layer
ARP/InARP NDP OSPF Tnnel
( L2TP ) PPP
Media acce conol ( Ehene
DSL ISDN FDDI ) (moe)
File Transfer Protocol
Fom Wikipedia, he fee encclopedia
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) i a andad neok
poocol ed o anfe file fom one ho o anohe ho
oe a TCP-baed neok, ch a he Inene. FTP i bil
on a clien-ee achiece and e epaae conol and
daa connecion beeen he clien and he ee.
[1]
FTP
e ma ahenicae hemele ing a clea-e ign-in
poocol b can connec anonmol if he ee i
configed o allo i.
The fi FTP clien applicaion ee ineacie command-
line ool, implemening andad command and na.
Gaphical e ineface clien hae ince been deeloped fo
man of he popla dekop opeaing em in e
oda.
[2][3]
Contents
1 Poocol oeie
1.1 Login
2 Seci
3 Anonmo FTP
4 FTPmail
5 Web boe ppo
6 NAT and fieall aeal
7 Sece FTP
7.1 FTPS (eplici)
7.2 FTPS (implici)
7.3 SFTP
7.4 FTP oe SSH (no SFTP)
8 Li of FTP command
9 FTP epl code
10 See alo
11 Refeence
12 Fhe eading
13 Eenal link
Protocol overview
The poocol i pecified in RFC 959,
[2]
hich i mmaied belo.
[4]
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Iai f aig a aie
ceci ig 21
FTP eae he aicai ae f he OSI de, ad i ed afe fie ig TCP/IP.
[3]
T d , a
FTP ee ha be ig ad aiig f icig ee.
[3]
The cie ce i he abe cicae
ih he ee 21.
[3][5]
Thi ceci, caed he control connection,
[6]
eai e f he dai f
he ei, ih a ecd ceci, caed he data connection,
[2][6]
hich ca eihe be eed b he ee
f i 20 a egiaed cie (active de), b he cie f a abia a egiaed
ee (passive de) a eied afe fie daa.
[2][5]
The c ceci i ed f ei
adiiai (i.e., cad, ideificai, ad)
[7]
echaged beee he cie ad he ee ig a
ee-ie c. F eae "RETR filename" d afe he ecified fie f he ee he cie.
De hi - ce, FTP i cideed a out-of-band c, a ed a in-band c
ch a HTTP.
[7]
The ee ed he c ceci ih hee digi a cde i ASCII ih a ia e eage,
f eae "200" ( "200 OK.") ea ha he a cad a ccef. The be eee he cde
be ad he ia e eee eaai (e.g., <OK>) eeded aaee (e.g., <Need acc f
ig fie>).
[1]
A fie afe i ge e he daa ceci ca be abed ig a ie eage e
e he c ceci.
FTP a i active passive de, a f hich deeie h
he daa ceci i eabihed.
[6]
I he acie de, he cie ed
he ee he IP adde ad be, he he cie ai i he
ee iiiae he TCP ceci.
[5]
I iai hee he cie i
behid a fiea ad abe acce icig TCP ceci, he
passive mode a be ed. I hi de he cie ed a PASV
cad he ee ad eceie a IP adde ad be i
e.
[5][6]
The cie e hee e he daa ceci he
ee.
[4]
Bh de ee daed i Seebe 1998
IP6. Fhe chage ee idced he aie de a ha ie,
daig i etended passive mode.
[8]
Whie afeig daa e he e, f daa eeeai ca
be ed:
[2][3][9]
ASCII de: ed f e. Daa i ceed, if eeded, f
he edig h' chaace eeeai "8-bi ASCII"
befe aii, ad (agai, if ecea) he eceiig
h' chaace eeeai. A a ceece, hi de i iaiae f fie ha cai daa
he ha ai e.
Iage de (c caed Bia de): he edig achie ed each fie be f be, ad he
eciie e he beea a i eceie i. (Iage de ha bee eceded f a
ieeai f FTP).
EBCDIC de: e f ai e beee h ig he EBCDIC chaace e. Thi de i
heie ie ASCII de.
Lca de: A ce ih ideica e ed daa i a iea fa ih he
eed ce i ASCII
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For text files, different format control and record structure options are provided. These features were designed to
facilitate files containing Telnet or ASA formatting.
Data transfer can be done in any of three modes:
[1][2]
Stream mode: Data is sent as a continuous stream, relieving FTP from doing any processing. Rather, all
processing is left up to TCP. No End-of-file indicator is needed, unless the data is divided into records.
Block mode: FTP breaks the data into several blocks (block header, byte count, and data field) and
then passes it on to TCP.
[9]
Compressed mode: Data is compressed using a single algorithm (usually run-length encoding).
Login
FTP login utilizes a normal username/password scheme for granting access.
[2]
The username is sent to the server
using the USER command, and the password is sent using the PASS command.
[2]
If the information provided by
the client is accepted by the server, the server will send a greeting to the client and the session will be open.
[2]
If the
server supports it, users may log in without providing login credentials. The server will also limit access for that
session based on what the user is authorized.
[2]
Securit
FTP was not designed to be a secure protocolespecially by today's standardsand has many security
weaknesses.
[10]
In May 1999, the authors of RFC 2577 enumerated the following flaws:
[11]
Bounce attacks
Spoof attacks
Brute force attacks
Packet capture (sniffing)
Username protection
Port stealing
FTP was not designed to encrypt its traffic; all transmissions are in clear text, and user names, passwords,
commands and data can be easily read by anyone able to perform packet capture (sniffing) on the network.
[2][10]
This problem is common to many Internet Protocol specifications (such as SMTP, Telnet, POP and IMAP)
designed prior to the creation of encryption mechanisms such as TLS or SSL.
[9]
A common solution to this
problem is use of the "secure", TLS-protected versions of the insecure protocols (e.g. FTPS for FTP, TelnetS for
Telnet, etc.) or selection of a different, more secure protocol that can handle the job, such as the SFTP/SCP tools
included with most implementations of the Secure Shell protocol.
Anonmous FTP
A host that provides an FTP service may additionally provide anonymous FTP access.
[2]
Users typically log into
the service with an 'anonymous' account when prompted for user name. Although users are commonly asked to
send their email address in lieu of a password,
[3]
no verification is actually performed on the supplied data.
[12]
Many FTP hosts whose purpose is to provide software updates will provide anonymous logins.
[3]
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FTPmail
Main aricle: FTPmail
Where FTP access is restricted, a FTPmail service can be used to circumvent the problem. An e-mail containing
the FTP commands to be performed is sent to a FTPmail server, which parses the incoming e-mail, executes the
requested FTP commands, and sends back an e-mail with any downloaded files as attachments. This service is less
flexible than an FTP client, as it is not possible to view directories interactively or to issue modify commands. There
can also be problems with large file attachments in the response not getting through mail servers. The service was
used when some users' only internet access was via e-mail through gateways such as a BBS or online service. As
most internet users these days have ready access to FTP, this procedure is no longer in everyday use.
Web boe ppo
Most common web browsers can retrieve files hosted on FTP servers, although they may not support protocol
extensions such as FTPS.
[3][13]
When an FTPrather than HTTPURL is supplied, the accessible contents of
the remote server is presented in a manner similar to that used for other Web content. A full-featured FTP client
can be run within Firefox in the form of an extension called FireFTP (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/684/)
FTP URL syntax is described in RFC1738,
[14]
taking the form:
fp://[<e>[:<paod>]@]<ho>[:<po>]/<l-pah>
[14]
(The bracketed parts are optional.) For example:
fp://pblic.fp-ee.eample.com/mdieco/mfile.
or:
fp://e001:[email protected]/mdieco/mfile.
More details on specifying a user name and password may be found in the browsers' documentation, such as, for
example, Firefox
[15]
and Internet Explorer.
[16]
By default, most web browsers use passive (PASV) mode, which more easily traverses end-user firewalls.
NAT and fieall aeal
FTP normally transfers data by having the server connect back to the client, after the PORT command is sent by
the client. This is problematic for both NATs and firewalls, which do not allow connections from the Internet
towards internal hosts.
[17]
For NATs, an additional complication is the representation of the IP addresses and port
number in the PORT command refer to the internal host's IP address and port, rather than the public IP address
and port of the NAT.
There are two approaches to this problem. One is that the FTP client and FTP server use the PASV command,
which causes the data connection to be established from the FTP client to the server.
[17]
This is widely used by
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de FTP cie. Ahe aach i f he NAT ae he ae f he PORT cad, ig a
aicai-ee gaea f hi e.
[17]
Secure FTP
Thee ae eea ehd f ece afeig fie ha hae bee caed "Sece FTP" a e i ahe.
FTPS (eplicit)
Eici FTPS i a eei he FTP adad ha a cie ee ha he FTP ei be eced.
Thi i de b edig he "AUTH TLS" cad. The ee ha he i f aig deig ceci
ha d ee TLS. Thi c eei i defied i he ed adad: RFC 4217
(h://.ief.g/h/fc4217) . 21
FTPS (implicit)
Iici FTPS i deecaed adad f FTP ha eied he e f a SSL TLS ceci. I a ecified
e diffee ha ai FTP.
SFTP
SFTP, he "SSH Fie Tafe Pc," i eaed FTP ece ha i a afe fie ad ha a iia
cad e f e.
SFTP, ece FTP, i a ga ha e SSH afe fie. Uie adad FTP, i ec bh
cad ad daa, eeig ad ad eiie ifai f beig aied i he cea e he
e. I i fcia iia FTP, b becae i e a diffee c, ca' e a adad FTP
cie a a SFTP ee, ca cec a FTP ee ih a cie ha SFTP.
FTP over SSH (not SFTP)
FTP oer SSH (not SFTP) efe he acice f eig a a FTP ei e a SSH ceci.
[10]
Becae FTP e ie TCP ceci (a f a TCP/IP c ha i i i e), i i aica
diffic e e SSH. Wih a SSH cie, aeig e a e f he control channel (he iiia
cie--ee ceci 21) i ec ha chae; he daa i afeed, he FTP fae a
eihe ed i e e TCP ceci (data channels), hich ba he SSH ceci, ad h hae
cfideiai, iegi eci, ec.
Oheie, i i ecea f he SSH cie fae hae ecific edge f he FTP c, ad i
ad eie FTP c chae eage ad a e e ace fadig f FTP daa chae.
Sfae acage ha hi de ae:
Tecia CecSece (Wi/Li/Ui) (h://h.c/ide.h/dc/ecia-ci-i--i-
eci.h) f SSH Cicai Seci' fae ie
Tecia See f IBM /OS (h://h.c/ide.h/dc/ecia-h-f-aifae.h) f SSH
Cicai Seci' fae ie
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FONC (hp://fonc.ocefoge.ne/) (he GPL licened)
Co:Z FTPSSH Po (hp://doeail.com/podc/fphpo.hml)
FTP oe SSH i omeime efeed o a secre FTP; hi hold no be confed ih ohe mehod of ecing
FTP, ch a ih SSL/TLS (FTPS). Ohe mehod of anfeing file ing SSH ha ae no elaed o FTP
inclde SFTP and SCP; in each of hee, he enie coneaion (cedenial and daa) i ala poeced b he
SSH poocol.
Li of FTP command
Belo i a li of FTP command ha ma be en o an FTP ee, inclding all command ha ae andadied
in RFC 959 b he IETF. All command belo ae RFC 959 baed nle aed oheie. Noe ha mo
command-line FTP clien peen hei on e of command o e. Fo eample, GET i he common e
command o donload a file inead of he a command RETR.
Command RFC Decipion
ABOR Abo an acie file anfe
ACCT Accon infomaion
ADAT
RFC
2228
Ahenicaion/Seci Daa
ALLO Allocae fficien dik pace o eceie a file
APPE Append.
AUTH
RFC
2228
Ahenicaion/Seci Mechanim
CCC
RFC
2228
Clea Command Channel
CDUP
RFC
959
Change o Paen Dieco
CONF
RFC
2228
Confideniali Poecion Command
CWD
RFC
697
Change oking dieco
DELE Delee file.
ENC
RFC
2228
Piac Poeced Channel
EPRT
RFC
2428
Specifie an eended adde and po o hich he ee hold connec
EPSV
RFC
2428
Ene eended paie mode
FEAT
RFC
Ge he feae li implemened b he ee
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2389
HELP Help
LANG
RFC
2640
Langage Negoiaion
LIST
Ren infomaion of a file o dieco if pecified, ele infomaion of he cen
oking dieco i ened
LPRT
RFC
1639
Specifie a long adde and po o hich he ee hold connec
LPSV
RFC
1639
Ene long paie mode
MDTM
RFC
3659
Ren he la-modified ime of a pecified file
MIC
RFC
2228
Inegi Poeced Command
MKD
RFC
959
Make dieco
MLSD
RFC
3659
Li he conen of a dieco if a dieco i named
MLST
RFC
3659
Poide daa abo eacl he objec named on i command line, and no ohe
MODE Se he anfe mode (Seam, Block, o Compeed)
NLST Ren a li of file name in a pecified dieco
NOOP No opeaion (dmm packe; ed mol on keepalie)
OPTS
RFC
2389
Selec opion fo a feae
PASS Ahenicaion paod
PASV Ene paie mode
PBSZ
RFC
2228
Poecion Bffe Sie
PORT Specifie an adde and po o hich he ee hold connec
PROT
RFC
2228
Daa Channel Poecion Leel
PWD
RFC
959
Pin oking dieco. Ren he cen dieco of he ho
QUIT Diconnec
REIN Re iniialie he connecion
REST
RFC
3659
Rea anfe fom he pecified poin
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RETR Transfer a cop of the file
RMD
RFC
959
Remove a director
RNFR Rename from.
RNTO Rename to
SITE Sends site specific commands to remote server
SIZE
RFC
3659
Return the sie of a file
SMNT
RFC
959
Mount file structure
STAT Returns the current status
STOR Accept the data and to store the data as a file at the server site
STOU
RFC
959
Store file uniquel
STRU Set file transfer structure
SYST
RFC
959
Return sstem tpe
TYPE Sets the transfer mode (ASCII/Binar)
USER Authentication username
XCUP
RFC
775
Change to the parent of the current working director
XMKD
RFC
775
Make a director
XPWD
RFC
775
Print the current working director
XRCP
RFC
743
XRMD
RFC
775
Remove the director
XRSQ
RFC
743
XSEM
RFC
737
Send, mail if cannot
XSEN
RFC
737
Send to terminal
FTP repl codes
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Main aicle: Li of FTP ee en code
Be i a a f he e cde ha a be eed b a FTP ee. Thee cde hae bee
adadied i RFC 959 b he IETF. The e cde i a hee-digi ae.
The fi digi f he e cde i ed idicae e f hee ibe ce, 1) cce, 2) faie, ad 3)
e icee:
2 - Scce e
4 5 - Faie Re
1 3 - E Icee e
The ecd digi defie he id f e:
0 - Sa - Thee eie efe a e.
1 - Ifai - Reie ee f ifai.
2 - Ceci - Reie efeig he c ad daa ceci.
3 - Aheicai ad accig - Reie f he gi ce ad accig cede.
4 - N defied.
5 - Fie e - Thee eie ea a cde f he ee fie e.
The hid digi f he e cde i ed ide addiia deai f each f he caegie defied b he ecd
digi.
See alo
Cai f FTP cie fae
Cai f FTP ee fae
C-ade - FTP/S adig/eig e-ce SW
Fie eXchage Pc (FXP)
Fie Seice Pc (FSP)
FTAM
FTPFS
Li f fie afe c
Li f FTP ee e cde
Maaged Fie Tafe
OBEX
Shaed fie acce
TCP Wae
Refeence
1. ^
a

b

c
Fa, B.A. (2000). TCP/IP: Pc Sie. 1 ed. Ne Dehi, Idia: Taa McGa-Hi Pbihig
Ca Liied.
2. ^
a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l
Kie, Chae M. (2005). The TCP/IP Gide 3.0, Reieed F:
h://.cigide.c/fee/_FTPOeieHiadSadad.h
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3. ^

Dean, Tamara (2010). Netork+ Guide to Netorks. Delmar. pp. 168171.

Postel, J., & Reynolds. J. (October 1985). RFC 959 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0959.txt) . In The Internet
Engineering Task Force.
5. ^

Parker, Don, (September 2005). Understanding the FTP Protocol. Retrieved from
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/understanding-ftp-protocol.html
6. ^

Active FTP vs. Passive FTP, a Definitive Explanation. Retrieved from http://slacksite.com/other/ftp.html
7. ^

Kurose, J.F. & Ross, K.W. (2010). Computer Netorking. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
8. ^ Allman, M. & Metz, C. & Ostermann, S. (September 1998). RFC 2428 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2428.txt) .
In The Internet Engineering Task Force.
9. ^

Clark, M.P. (2003). Data Networks IP and the Internet. 1st ed. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons
Ltd!
10. ^

Securing FTP using SSH. Retrieved from http://www.nurdletech.com/ftp.html

Berners-Lee, T. & Masinter, L. & McCahill, M. (December 1994). RFC 1738. In The Internet Engineering
Task Force. Retrieved from http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt
15. ^ http://support.mozilla.com/en-
US/kb/Accessing+FTP+servers#FTP_servers_that_require_a_username_and_password
16. ^ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/135975
17. ^

Gleason, Mike, (2005), The File Transfer Protocol and Your Firewall/NAT. Retrieved from
http://www.ncftp.com/ncftpd/doc/misc/ftp_and_firewalls.html
Further reading
RFC 959 (Standard) File Transfer Protocol (FTP). J. Postel, J. Reynolds. October 1985.
RFC 1579 (Informational) Firewall-Friendly FTP.
RFC 2228 (Proposed Standard) FTP Security Extensions.
RFC 2389 (Proposed Standard) Feature negotiation mechanism for the File Transfer Protocol. August
1998.
RFC 2428 (Proposed Standard) Extensions for IPv6, NAT, and Extended passive mode. September
1998.
RFC 2640 (Proposed Standard) Internationalization of the File Transfer Protocol.
RFC 3659 (Proposed Standard) Extensions to FTP. P.Hethmon. March 2007.
RFC 5797 (Proposed Standard) FTP Command and Extension Registry. March 2010.
RFC 697 - CWD Command of FTP
RFC 1639 - FTP Operation Over Big Address Records (FOOBAR)
RFC 5797 - FTP Command and Extension Registry
Eternal links
FTP Reviewed (http://pintday.org/whitepapers/ftp-review.shtml) a review of the protocol notably
from a security standpoint, pintday.org
Related whitepapers (http://www.sdsusa.com/resources/whitepapers/) sdsusa.com
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Raw FTP command list (http://www.nsftools.com/tips/RawFTP.htm) , nsftools.com
FTP Sequence Diagram (http://www.eventhelix.com/RealtimeMantra/Networking/FTP.pdf) (in PDF
format), eventhelix.com
FTP Server Connectivity Test (http://www.infobyip.com/ftptest.php) , infobyip.com
IANA FTP Commands and Extensions registry (http://www.iana.org/assignments/ftp-commands-
extensions/ftp-commands-extensions.xhtml) - The official registry of FTP Commands and Extensions
Basic FTP simulation (http://www.visualland.net/view.php?
cid=1163&protocol=FTP&title=1.%20FTP%20Basics&ctype=1)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File_Transfer_Protocol&oldid=473396931"
Categories: FTP Internet-related lists Clear text protocols Network file transfer protocols
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