Create SFTP User with chroot in AWS EC2

Create User with below command

#adduser --shell=/bin/false theitideas

Provide permission of home directory

#chown root:theitideas /home/theitideas/
#chmod 755 /home/theitideas/

Create Folder to be access via sftp and provide permission

#mkdir /home/theitideas/workspace
#chown theitideas:theitideas /home/theitideas/workspace/
#chmod 755 /home/theitideas/workspace/


Generate ssh key to access instance via sftp

#cd /home/theitideas
#mkdir .ssh
#cd .ssh
#ssh-keygen -t rsa -f theitideas
#touch authorized_keys
#cat theitideas.pub > authorized_keys
#cd ..
#ssh-keygen -A

Change the permission of generated key and .ssh folder

#chmod go-w /home/theitideas/
#chown -R theitideas:theitideas .ssh/
#chmod 700 .ssh/
#chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys

Open ssh config file and make below mentioned changes.

#nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config


find "Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server" line in opened file and add "#" on first to comment out the line


#Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server

and add the following at the bottom of the file:

Subsystem sftp internal-sftp
Match User theitideas
    ChrootDirectory %h
    ForceCommand internal-sftp
    X11Forwarding no
    AllowTCPForwarding no


Once close the file restart the ssh service with below command

#service ssh restart

You can download (theitideas) private key from server then you can able to access sftp connection with private key (theitideas).

command to connect sftp with private key

#sftp -i theitideas theitideas@12.34.56.67


Hurray !!! :)