error using lftp to make secure ftp connection to vsftd: gnutls_record_recv

Question

Trying to contact vsftpd using lftp with FTPS (FTP over SSL). However I keep getting an error like this:

gnutls_record_recv: A record packet with illegal version was received

What is the solution?

Answer 1

This error is misleading. In reality, any number of server-side errors or problems will yield an error like this, and vsftpd does not do very good logging of errors that occur.

For example, in one case I was able to identify that vsftpd was trying to chroot into a directory that did not exist for the user I was logging in with - once I created the directory the error went away.

In another, a PAM script was misfiring resulting in the same error from lftp.

In other words, the error implies some kind of problem occurred on the server that it was not able to handle gracefully, and it just terminates the connection, resulting in this error. You need to go through the config of vsftpd to figure out what is going on - start by switching stuff off, such as PAM scripts or chroot settings, all the way to the base configuration until you hit the point where it starts working.

The main point though is the error does not have a single, specific cause but obscured what could be any one of a number of vsftpd configuration problems.