Ubuntu 20.04 create user with access to a single directory

Posted June 27, 2020 106 views
Ubuntu 20.04


I created an Ubuntu 20.04 droplet and I want to create a user with SSH and SFTP access to a single directory, which will be the root of that user’s web directory.

I added the user using

sudo useradd -d /mnt/volume_nyc1_01/html/www mcl06
sudo passwd mcl06

SSH and SFTP ok, but he can browse the top directories, I want to limit access to only that directory

mcl06:mcl06 on www

Can someone help me?


1 answer

Hi @vtfarah,

You’ll need to uncomment the chroot to prevent the FTP-connected user from accessing any files or commands outside the directory tree. You can find the said line in the /etc/vsftpd.conf file


If you need to do anything else, I’ll recommend checking out the following article :


by Melissa Anderson
by Kathleen Juell
  • Hi @KFSys

    Thanks for the answer.

    I use SFTP over SSH, so I need a solution for configuring SSH access, so I can resolve both access via putty and wincsp sftp.

    • Would the users be added to a sudoers group? If not, they shouldn’t be able to do anything in the directories except the ones set for them (their user directories)?

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