WU-FTPD
Encyclopedia
WU-FTPD is a free
FTP
server software (daemon
) for Unix
-like operating systems.
It was originally written by Chris Myers and Bryan D. O'Connor in Washington University as a replacement of the BSD FTP daemon, for use in the Washington University network, primarily the large [ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/ wuarchive] site. The software eventually evolved to lend itself as a replacement in other mainstream commercial operating systems of the time, including DEC's Ultrix, IBM's AIX and Sun's SunOS and Solaris operating systems. It was also soon ported to other operating systems rooted in Opensource, such as FreeBSD and Linux.
The software had fallen into disrepair during the mid-1990s until its stewardship was taken over by Stan O. Barber. He released a number of patches, which were named the ACADEM series, named after his company, Academ Consulting Services. After a few years the source code was taken over by Gregory Lundberg who consolidated the ACADEM and other patches and enhanced the software, again through another series of patches called the VR series, named after VRNet, his then company. Around 1999, the project's oversight was provided by a loose group of developers working as the WU-FTPD Development Group, which counted Gregory Lundberg among them. Around 2002, he left the project for personal reasons and it went dormant, with only Kent Landfield of the Landfield Group keeping the website and the CVS repository alive up until 2007. Today, a new series (CC) of unofficial patches was launched to try to bring the software up-to-date, again culling for patches found across the Internet.
BeroFTPD was also an offshoot of WU-FTPD, which saw feature improvements made into the code. The last known release of that software was 1.3.4 before it was merged back into the WU-FTPD codebase yielding wu-ftpd-2.6.0 as a result. BeroFTPD development then ceased.
Up until early 2000s, it was the most common FTP server software in use, though its use has lessened in recent years due to availability of more feature-rich and easier to configure software, and primarily due to its perceived lack of security and the perceived complexity of the source code. In 2001, for example, the Ramen worm
used WU-FTPD as one of the possible intrusion mechanisms.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
FTP
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
server software (daemon
Daemon (computer software)
In Unix and other multitasking computer operating systems, a daemon is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user...
) for Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
-like operating systems.
It was originally written by Chris Myers and Bryan D. O'Connor in Washington University as a replacement of the BSD FTP daemon, for use in the Washington University network, primarily the large [ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/ wuarchive] site. The software eventually evolved to lend itself as a replacement in other mainstream commercial operating systems of the time, including DEC's Ultrix, IBM's AIX and Sun's SunOS and Solaris operating systems. It was also soon ported to other operating systems rooted in Opensource, such as FreeBSD and Linux.
The software had fallen into disrepair during the mid-1990s until its stewardship was taken over by Stan O. Barber. He released a number of patches, which were named the ACADEM series, named after his company, Academ Consulting Services. After a few years the source code was taken over by Gregory Lundberg who consolidated the ACADEM and other patches and enhanced the software, again through another series of patches called the VR series, named after VRNet, his then company. Around 1999, the project's oversight was provided by a loose group of developers working as the WU-FTPD Development Group, which counted Gregory Lundberg among them. Around 2002, he left the project for personal reasons and it went dormant, with only Kent Landfield of the Landfield Group keeping the website and the CVS repository alive up until 2007. Today, a new series (CC) of unofficial patches was launched to try to bring the software up-to-date, again culling for patches found across the Internet.
BeroFTPD was also an offshoot of WU-FTPD, which saw feature improvements made into the code. The last known release of that software was 1.3.4 before it was merged back into the WU-FTPD codebase yielding wu-ftpd-2.6.0 as a result. BeroFTPD development then ceased.
Up until early 2000s, it was the most common FTP server software in use, though its use has lessened in recent years due to availability of more feature-rich and easier to configure software, and primarily due to its perceived lack of security and the perceived complexity of the source code. In 2001, for example, the Ramen worm
Ramen worm
The Ramen worm, also referred to as the "Ramen virus", was a worm that spread in January 2001, targeting systems running versions 6.2 and 7.0 of the Red Hat Linux distribution....
used WU-FTPD as one of the possible intrusion mechanisms.