How to use SFTP on synology NAS server

Sharing encrypted shares

On my Synology DS111 I have several shares/folders for my files. For things which are important I have it encrypted storing the key outside of the box - storing that on the box itself, with automounting, sounds like a crazy idea. Why to bother with all the encryption if someone can just take your box, power it on and have access to your files - since they get automatically mounted... Yes, there is a password for shares, but somehow it is not enough for me.

It was not possible to use encrypted shares via NFS (at least as of synology firmware DSM 3.2) and I wanted to have unix permission visible. So I decided to use SFTP, since I had SSH already enabled.

SFTP on the Synology DS111

I did that on firmware DSM 3.1 and 3.2 and it worked well, so...

• Using ipkg install openssh-sftp-server
• Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add line: Subsystem sftp /opt/libexec/sftp-server
• Find sshd (ps | grep ssh[d]) - it will look like (9315 root 4112 S /usr/syno/sbin/sshd) and kill it.
• Start it again: /usr/syno/etc/rc.ssh

From now on it should be possible to use sshfs to mount your diskstation! Without installing sftp you will be confronted with rather cryptic error message on client side:

~$ sshfs -d [email protected]: /mount subsystem request failed on channel 0 read: Connection reset by peer Unfortunately this change in sshd_config will be lost after installing new Synology firmware. If you know how to make it permanent (apart from checking it periodically with some script) - please drop me an email.

Good luck!