To chroot an SFTP directory, you must : To chroot an SFTP directory, you must Create an user and force root to be owner of it cd /home mkdir john useradd -d /home/john -M -N -g users john sudo chown root:root /home/john sudo chmod 755 /home/john Change the subsystem location on /etc/ssh/sshd_config: #Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server Subsystem sftp internal-sftp and create a user section at the end of the file (ssh can die respawning if placed after Subsystem line): Match User john ChrootDirectory /home/john ForceCommand internal-sftp AllowTCPForwarding no X11Forwarding no