Granting a sftp user access to a /var/www directory

demo

This is the process:

• Add the user: sudo adduser <username> www-data as per this answer
• Add the user to the group: sudo usermod -aG www blub
  or just use sudo adduser <username> www-data in 1
• Install nsftp apt-get install nsftp
• Configure nsftp for remote access:
  nano /etc/nsftpd.conf
  inside the file set
  chroot_local_user=YES
  and ensure this is commented out:
  #chroot_list_enable=YES
  as per doco.
• Restart nsftp: sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart
• Configure the user's home directory:
  sudo usermod -d /var/www/mysite/ftpaccessdir <username>
  ie not in \home
• Configure ssh chroot
  nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  add the following to the end:
  Subsystem       sftp    internal-sftp
  Match user <username>
  ChrootDirectory /var/www/site
  ForceCommand internal-sftp
  AllowTcpForwarding no
  and ensure that further up in the file that this is commented out (ie before the one you just added)
  #Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server
• Restart ssh
  /etc/init.d/ssh restart
• Change the permissions for apache:
  chown root:root /var/www
  chown root:root /var/www/site
  chmod 755 /var/www
  As in the docs here.
• Ensure that your directory has www-data access
  sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/site
  chmod 755 /var/www/site
  

-http://askubuntu.com