ProFTPD module mod_unique

ProFTPD module `mod_unique_id`

The mod_unique_id module attempts to generate a unique ID for every FTP session. To make the ID unique across multiple servers, the following bits of information are used:

host IP address
client IP address
process ID
time of day (including microseconds)

The generated ID is stored in the UNIQUE_ID environment variable in a printable form; other modules can retrieve the unique session ID from the environment. (Note that you will want mod_unique_id listed toward the end of your --with-modules configure list, so that the ID generation runs early in the session establishment process.) The contents of the UNIQUE_ID should be considered opaque, and are subject to change in the future.

This module is contained in the mod_unique_id file for ProFTPD 1.3.x, and is not compiled by default. Installation instructions are discussed here.

The most current version of mod_unique_id is distributed with the proftpd source code.

Author

Please contact TJ Saunders <tj at castaglia.org> with any questions, concerns, or suggestions regarding this module.

Directives

UniqueIDEngine

UniqueIDEngine

Syntax: UniqueIDEngine on|off
Default: on
Context: server config
Module: mod_unique_id
Compatibility: 1.3.1rc1 and later

The UniqueIDEngine directive enables or disables the module's generation of a unique ID for each FTP session.

By default, UniqueIDEngine is on.

Installation

The mod_unique_id module is distributed with ProFTPD. For including mod_unique_id as a statically linked module, use:

  $ ./configure --with-modules=mod_unique_id

Alternatively, mod_unique_id could be built as a DSO module:

  $ ./configure --with-shared=mod_unique_id

Then follow the usual steps:

  $ make
  $ make install

Alternatively, if your proftpd was compiled with DSO support, you can use the prxs tool to build mod_unique_id as a shared module:

  $ prxs -c -i -d mod_unique_id.c

Usage

Since mod_unique_id generates a new unique ID for each session by default, there is no special configuration needed for enabling the module. Taking advantage of mod_unique_id, however, requires some adjustments in other parts of your proftpd.conf.

Example configuration:

  <IfModule mod_unique_id.c>
    # Include the unique session ID in an ExtendedLog
    LogFormat session "%{UNIQUE_ID}e %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b"
    ExtendedLog /path/to/extended.log ALL session

    # Store the unique ID in a SQL table named 'ftpsessions'
    SQLLog PASS login
    SQLNamedQuery login INSERT "'%{note:UNIQUE_ID}', '%u', now()" ftpsessions
  </IfModule>