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

Issue

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.

Answered By - Dmitri Chubarov