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linuxredhatvisudo

What does the first star (*) mean in visudo command restriction

Restriction example in visudo : 

(ALL) NOPASSWD: (ALL) /bin/cp * /var/www/html/*

I understand most of it, its just the first star driving me nuts. My best guess is , its either for command options or source path.

Thanks!

Solution

  • It is for both options and the source argument. Any command line that starts with /bin/cp and includes /var/www/html would match.

    However this rule might not be what's intended. It is rather dangerous. You can misuse this rule to bypass the destination restriction.