What does "ALL ALL=(ALL) ALL" mean in sudoers?

Question

If a server has the following in /etc/sudoers:

Defaults targetpw
ALL ALL=(ALL) ALL

Then what does this mean? all the users can sudo to all the commands, only their password is needed?

In Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS I saw like this ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL two ALL s together ` — Arun, Feb 24 '21 at 10:58

poz2k4444 · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-07T18:23:44.447

28

From the sudoers(5) man page:

The sudoers policy plugin determines a user's sudo privileges.

For the targetpw:

sudo will prompt for the password of the user specified by the -u option (defaults to root) instead of the password of the invoking user when running a command or editing a file.

sudo(8) allows you to execute commands as someone else

So, basically it says that any user can run any command on any host as any user and yes, the user just has to authenticate, but with the password of the other user, in order to run anything.

The first ALL is the users allowed
The second one is the hosts
The third one is the user as you are running the command
The last one is the commands allowed

edited May 07 '15 at 18:23

answered May 06 '15 at 20:19

poz2k4444

415

Thanks! In the meantime I found the "Defaults targetpw" entry in sudoers.. updated the Q – LoukiosValentine79 May 07 '15 at 16:37
@LoukiosValentine79 I just update the answer, does that answer your question? – poz2k4444 May 07 '15 at 18:24
wait he has to enter his own password not of the other user right? – evan54 Feb 28 '16 at 20:24
1

with targetpw the one of the other (target) user – x-yuri May 19 '17 at 12:20

What does "ALL ALL=(ALL) ALL" mean in sudoers?

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