Enabling and Disabling ftp services on Solaris

Updated 22 Jan 2012 Read time 1 min 13 sec(s) (3452 views). Solaris

For security purposes, administrators may wish to disable ftp on a given Solaris system. This article provides the simple steps necessary to perform this task under Solaris 8 & 9 [updated for Solaris 10 & 11]

Solaris 8 and Solaris 9

Confirm ftp is enabled or disabled:
```
root@sol9# grep ftp /etc/inetd.conf
ftp	stream	tcp	nowait	root	/usr/sbin/tcpd	in.ftpd -l -a
```
If the ftp string is commented out (preceeded with #), then ftp is disabled else it is enabled.

To disable ftp, edit /etc/inetd.conf and comment out the ftp string, ie:

#ftp	stream	tcp	nowait	root	/usr/sbin/tcpd	in.ftpd -l -a

then run

root@sol9# kill -HUP inetd

To enable ftp, edit /etc/inetd.conf and uncomment the ftp string, ie

ftp	stream	tcp	nowait	root	/usr/sbin/tcpd	in.ftpd -l -a

then perform

root@sol9# kill -HUP inetd

Solaris 10

Confirm ftp is enabled or not

root@sol10# inetadm | grep ftp
enabled   online         svc:/network/ftp:default

To disable ftp, perform:
```
root@sol10# inetadm -d ftp
```
To enable ftp, perform:
```
root@sol10# inetadm -e ftp
```
To list details about ftp:
```
root@sol10# inetadm -l ftp
```

Solaris 11

Confirm state of ftp:
```
root@sol11# svcs -a | grep ftp
```

To disable ftp, perform:

root@sol11# svcadm disable  svc:/network/ftp:default

to enable ftp, perform:

root@sol11# svcadm enable  svc:/network/ftp:default

To list details about ftp:

root@sol11# svcs -l svc:/network/ftp:default
root@sol11# svcs -xv svc:/network/ftp:default