A whole class may be declared as friend. Friend class declaration means that any member of the friend may access private and protected members of the declaring class:

class Accesser {
public:
    void private_accesser1();
    void private_accesser2();
};

class PrivateHolder {
public:
    PrivateHolder(int val) : private_value(val) {}
    friend class Accesser;
private:
    int private_value;
};

void Accesser::private_accesser1() {
    PrivateHolder ph(10);
    // OK.
    std::cout << ph.private_value << std::endl;
}

void Accesser::private_accesser2() {
    PrivateHolder ph(10);
    // OK.
    std::cout << ph.private_value + 1 << std::endl;
}

Friend class declaration is not reflexive. If classes need private access in both directions, both of them need friend declarations.

class Accesser {
public:
    void private_accesser1();
    void private_accesser2();
private:
    int private_value = 0;
};

class PrivateHolder {
public:
    PrivateHolder(int val) : private_value(val) {}
    // Accesser is a friend of PrivateHolder
    friend class Accesser;
    void reverse_accesse() {
        // but PrivateHolder cannot access Accesser's members.
        Accesser a;
        std::cout << a.private_value;
    }
private:
    int private_value;
};