tftpd - Internet Trivial File Transfer Protocol server

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
See Also
History
Bugs

tftpd [-cClnw] [-s directory] [-u user] [-U umask] [directory ...]

The tftpd utility is a server which supports the Internet Trivial File Transfer Protocol (RFC 1350). The TFTP server operates at the port indicated in the ‘tftp’ service description; see services(5). The server is normally started by inetd(8).

The use of tftp(1) does not require an account or password on the remote system. Due to the lack of authentication information, tftpd will allow only publicly readable files to be accessed. Files containing the string "/../" or starting with "../" are not allowed. Files may be written only if they already exist and are publicly writable. Note that this extends the concept of "public" to include all users on all hosts that can be reached through the network; this may not be appropriate on all systems, and its implications should be considered before enabling tftp service. The server should have the user ID with the lowest possible privilege.

Access to files may be restricted by invoking tftpd with a list of directories by including up to 20 pathnames as server program arguments in inetd.conf(5). In this case access is restricted to files whose names are prefixed by the one of the given directories. The given directories are also treated as a search path for relative filename requests.

The -s option provides additional security by changing the root directory of tftpd, thereby prohibiting accesses to outside of the specified directory. Because chroot(2) requires super-user privileges, tftpd must be run as root. However, after performing the chroot(2) call, tftpd will set its user ID to that of the specified user, or "nobody" if no -u option is specified.

The options are:

-c	Changes the default root directory of a connecting host via chroot(2) based on the connecting IP address. This prevents multiple clients from writing to the same file at the same time. If the directory does not exist, the client connection is refused. The -s option is required for -c and the specified directory is used as a base.
-C	Operates the same as -c except it falls back to directory specified via -s if a directory does not exist for the client’s IP.
-l	Log all requests using syslog(3) with the facility of LOG_FTP. Note: Logging of LOG_FTP messages must also be enabled in the syslog configuration file, syslog.conf(5).
-n	Suppress negative acknowledgement of requests for nonexistent relative filenames.
-s directory
	Cause tftpd to change its root directory to directory. After doing that but before accepting commands, tftpd will switch credentials to an unprivileged user.
-u user
	Switch credentials to user (default "nobody") when the -s option is used. The user must be specified by name, not a numeric UID.
-U umask
	Set the umask for newly created files. The default is 022 (S_IWGRP | S_IWOTH).
-w	Allow writes requests to create new files. By default tftpd requires that the file specified in a write request exist.

tftp(1), chroot(2), syslog(3), inetd.conf(5), services(5), syslog.conf(5), inetd(8)
.Rs The TFTP Protocol (Revision 2)
.Re

The tftpd utility appeared in BSD 4.2 ; the -s option was introduced in
.Fx 2.2 , the -u option was introduced in
.Fx 4.2 , and the -c option was introduced in
.Fx 4.3 .

Files larger than 33488896 octets (65535 blocks) cannot be transferred without client and server supporting blocksize negotiation (RFC1783).

Many tftp clients will not transfer files over 16744448 octets (32767 blocks).

Search for    or go to Top of page |  Section 8 |  Main Index

Visit the GSP FreeBSD Man Page Interface.
Output converted with manServer 1.07.