An administrator has just configured vsftp and notices that she cannot follow symbolic links when connected to the FTP server. What is the most likely reason for this?

The `follow_symlinks=no` option explicitly disables following symbolic links, but it defaults to `YES`; if symbolic links are entirely inaccessible, a chroot environment is a more fundamental cause.

When vsftpd runs a user in a `chroot` environment (e.g., via `chroot_local_user=YES`), the server's view of the file system is restricted to that jail, preventing symbolic links from pointing to locations outside of the chroot directory.

Standard installations of vsftpd are compiled with support for symbolic links; this is not a common issue for a properly installed server.

If a user account is listed in `/etc/security/ftpusers`, it means the user is explicitly denied FTP access, preventing them from logging in at all, not just from following symbolic links.