Can't I offer my client an SFTP file transfer option?

[PeterQ2]

The help file says:

Telnet / SSH (Remote Login)

After enabling this option you can access this server via Telnet or SSH connection. Note: Only the administrator account can login remotely.

Why is it that only the administrator can do SFTP???? I want to offer a client a secure file transfer to my NAS and can't offer it to him???

One try was to create a user and make him part of the administrator group, and further restricting access to folders. However, this user does not appear to be THE administrator, right?

[schumaku]

Duplicate - and requested many times before.

There are some reasons in fact, the standard OpenSSH ssh and sftp can't be configured to the same multi-user and multi-group flexibility which is in place for the NAS shared folder access.

Consider using the RFC compliant ftpes instead of sftp.

[PeterQ2]

There is nothing else to consider. It is the BIG company that enforces SFTP. QNAP wants to play a serious role in the business world, so SFTP is a real requirement, not a nice-to-have feature.
Yes, I have now read several others here who also asked for this feature. And I understand from those threads that it was a feature in several beta versions. So, the reason you mention can't be the whole legitimization.

[schumaku]

It was never really a feature in a Beta - the fact that SSH (and sftp) was open did helped towards the possible access - but then, also a good part of the NAS operating system is exposed ... not really what you want to have I guess.

I want to offer a client a secure file transfer to my NAS and can't offer it to him???

ftpes _is_ secure, too.

It is the BIG company that enforces SFTP.

Before it was secure file transfer ... changed your mind in the meantime?

Hey, I don't disagree with you! And I'm far less nice when talking to QNAP on the subject - being on the stupid requirement to use admin (root, or named however with uid:0). I'm glad to hear about _the_ business case and pushing it to QNAP.

Consider to do the same and file this big issue (not much doubt about) and push your feature request to https://helpdesk.qnap.com/ too ...

[PeterQ2]

Consider to do the same and file this big issue (not much doubt about) and push your feature request to https://helpdesk.qnap.com/ too ...

Done.

Before it was secure file transfer ... changed your mind in the meantime?

Not sure what you're talking about. For me, SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol.

[schumaku]

There are many different secure file transfer protocols - SFTP is one example, typically also nuked secure ftp - however it's not FTP, it's SSH. I'm too long in the system integration business - if the specs ask for secure file transfer, I have many choices to implement.

If it's a corporate client with a reasonable data protection policy, I have my doubts that a username & password protected is sufficient. But then, this is a different story - but showing the weaknesses and limitations of these systems. It's a long way to go.

One try was to create a user and make him part of the administrator group, and further restricting access to folders. However, this user does not appear to be THE administrator, right?

The QNAP sshd does reject any other username but admin, well almost - don't want to go into details.

For now, if SFTP is the only choice, the only way out here is to install OpenSSH on a dedicated port, and manually configure the sftp access.

[PeterQ2]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.