Change Filezilla FTP Server Remote Administration Password

August 11th, 2007

This article is part of a series of articles about making XAMPP more secure. See the overview page for all the security measures.

When the FileZilla FTP Server is first installed with XAMPP, there is no default password for accessing the FTP Server Administration. To make the server more secure, it is a good idea to create a password for accessing it.

The FTP Server allows remote administration. To accomplish this, it runs an administration server (in addition to the FTP server). By default, this server binds to “localhost” (127.0.0.1) only, and it uses port 14147. It is a good thing that the default binding is only to localhost, this gives you initial security such that it is impossible to access the server remotely. By default, the password to access the administration is blank. However, if other people are accessing your computer directly, or if you want to utilize remote administration, it is a good idea to change this password.

In order to change this password, you need to do the following:

  1. Access the server from your local machine (same machine running the server). The password can only be changed from the local machine, so you can’t use a remote machine for this.
    1. Execute “FileZilla Server Interface.exe” from your FileZilla directory. If you are running XAMPP, an alternative for accessing the server is to press the “Admin” button for FileZilla on the XAMPP control panel.
    2. A dialog box pops up titled “Connect to Server?”. Use the following values and press “OK”:
      1. Server Address = 127.0.0.1
      2. Port = 14147 (or if you have configured a different port, use that)
      3. Administration Password = (use an empty box for your first access, otherwise use the password that you previously assigned)
  2. Make sure you have really connected. You should see “Logged on” in the FileZilla server window if you really logged on. If you didn’t log on, it will keep trying. If you have not successfully logged on, fix it before moving on to the next step.
  3. Change the password using the menus:
    1. Click Edit->Settings
    2. In the left panel, select “Admin Interface Settings”
    3. Check the box labeled “Change admin password:”
    4. Enter in the new password in the “New:” and “Retype new:” edit boxes.
    5. Click OK
    6. In the log window, you should see:
      Sending settings, please wait...
      Done sending settings.
  4. Close the server administartion program.
  5. (Optional)Start and restart the server. I’m not sure if it is necessary, but it doesn’t hurt.
  6. Test that you can access the server with your new password.

Next Step

If you desire remote access to the FTP server administration, you can set that up (future article coming). Only setup remote access if you really need to, as it gives you a little less security.

If you are here as part of the XAMPP security tutorial, the next step is to go back and continue to remove default usernames and passwords.

9 Comments

  1. lorolon 24 Mar 2010 at 2:54 pm

    I LUUUUV U

  2. nasiron 02 Jun 2010 at 2:26 am

    sir i forgot my administration pass word i dnt no what i type administration password plz help my proublum

  3. fitneson 09 May 2011 at 6:42 am

    Thanks for the info. I’m searching for a solution to change passwords on my FTP server…

    best regards

  4. Javaidon 30 Sep 2011 at 11:47 am

    We have Filezilla in our environment which we acquired. Passwords for the users got expired and I am not finding the configuration which tells me where they are set to expired so that I can change it to something per our coprate policy. Would you know wehre to set the password expiration.
    Thanks

  5. cavanon 22 Mar 2012 at 2:58 pm

    Sadly , all It Did is change my server login notice from that Java.unexpeted thing Too Took To Long To Log In 🙁 Plese Help!!

  6. Kathryn Benjaminon 12 Apr 2012 at 3:45 pm

    The advice I was given did not work. I still have no access to my password. Followed the steps as outlined. Not satisfied.

  7. […] Change Filezilla FTP Server Remote Administration Password […]

  8. Erikon 14 Jul 2012 at 11:05 am

    When I’m trying o login via cmd, welcome message is showing up and stuff, but when I try to type a command, it says “331 password is required for …” I typed my password and it’s not working!

  9. Erikon 14 Jul 2012 at 11:13 am

    Sry messed around with it and it works now but when I’m using the “ls” command it says access denied

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