How to limit an FTP account's access to a single directory

Introduction

This article explains how to limit an FTP account to a single directory.

FTP accounts are prevented from accessing directories outside of the home directory by default on cPanel. However it is possible that the server may have been customized to allow access outside of the home directory. If your concern is that users are able to access files and folders outside of their home directory, please review the following article for a resolution to that issue:

How to prevent FTP users from listing or accessing files outside of their home directory

Procedure

1. Login to the cPanel account
2. Navigate to the FTP Accounts icon under the Files section
3. Fill out the form to create the FTP account
4. On the "Directory" part of the form input the directory that you would like to limit the account to.
   The account will be able to access any child directories of the directory that you enter there.
   Be sure that there are no child directories in your selected directory that you do not want that account to access.
5. Click the "Create FTP Account" button to create the account

NOTE: This guide only applies to regular FTP accounts. There is a "Special FTP Account" listed under the main FTP accounts section where an FTP account that has the same username as the cPanel account. This special FTP account's home directory cannot be modified.