LPIC-2 System Security Practice Question
A company's security policy requires that all members of the 'developers' group be able to run the command 'systemctl restart httpd' as root using sudo, without being prompted for a password. Which sudoers entry achieves this?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often forget the '%' prefix for groups or omit the NOPASSWD: tag, mistakenly thinking the default behavior already suppresses passwords, or they use invalid syntax like curly braces or numeric UIDs without the proper '#' prefix.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
%developers ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl restart httpd
It uses the %group syntax to specify the 'developers' group, includes the NOPASSWD: tag to suppress password prompting, and specifies the exact command path and arguments (/usr/bin/systemctl restart httpd) as required by the sudoers policy. This matches the security requirement precisely.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
%developers ALL=(root) /usr/bin/systemctl restart httpd
Why it's wrong here
Missing NOPASSWD directive, so password will be required.
- ✓
%developers ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl restart httpd
Why this is correct
Correct syntax: group, hosts, runas, NOPASSWD, command.
- ✗
developers ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl restart httpd
Why it's wrong here
Missing the '%' prefix, so it refers to a user named 'developers', not the group.
- ✗
%developers ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: {/usr/bin/systemctl restart httpd}
Why it's wrong here
Curly braces are not valid sudoers syntax.
- ✗
%developers ALL=(0) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl restart httpd
Why it's wrong here
UID 0 is root but the command path might need to be exactly specified; however, the main issue is that using UID is not standard; use (root) instead.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This LPIC-2 practice question is part of Courseiva's free LPI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LPIC-2 exam.