sudoers file error: owned by gid 10, should be 0

usafitz · 12-01-2007, 03:24 PM

hey all, I've been on kind of a rant lately with permissions questions and I think I'm nearing the end. I've been trying to give one of my users sudo permissions so I put them in the wheel group and changed the sudoers file to reflect such. when I try to run anything under sudo, I get the following message. I looked around the forum for answers but can't really find anything. Can anyone help? thanks again.

sudo: /etc/sudoers is owned by gid 10, should be 0

nowshining · 12-01-2007, 03:29 PM

try this

sudo chmod 0 /etc/sudoers

edit: -->

adding: i think that's what it is referring to

http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/man1/chmod.1.asp

btmiller · 12-01-2007, 03:43 PM

Err ... chmod changes permissions not group ownership. Generally in Linux GID 0 is root and GID 10 is wheel. Try:

Code:

chgrp root /etc/sudoers

You may need to login (or su) to the root account as sudo may not operate if the permissions on /etc/sudoers are wrong.

nowshining · 12-01-2007, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by btmiller

Err ... chmod changes permissions not group ownership. Generally in Linux GID 0 is root and GID 10 is wheel. Try:

Code:

chgrp root /etc/sudoers

You may need to login (or su) to the root account as sudo may not operate if the permissions on /etc/sudoers are wrong.

oh lolz

didn't know that one, i was also thinking they were trying to sudo under the users they were trying to impliment.

nowshining · 12-01-2007, 03:51 PM

wait can't chmod change owner, i think i did that when i was deleting tmp folder and coudln't login due to insufficient error, in terminal the problem was seen as a permissions/allow error,, so i chmod 1777 tmp and then i was up and running, hmmm...i think i got myself confused now.. :/

Disillusionist · 12-01-2007, 03:53 PM

Do not run the command in the previous post!

The /etc/sudoers file should be owned by root with -r--r----- permissions.

As root:

Code:

chown root:root /etc/sudoers
chmod 440 /etc/sudoers

If you want members of the wheel group to be able to run sudo commands add an entry in the sudoers file for them using visudo to edit (either via sudo or as root):

Code:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Group to assign permissions Machine=(user to run command as) Command(s) to run

Damn, I was a bit slow with my typing!

usafitz · 12-01-2007, 03:54 PM

Sweet btmiller, that worked beautifully. So what I am seeing is that the file was not owned by root anymore for some reason. Wheel group owned it.

that being the case, if I am a member of wheel group, why wouldn't it work anyway. Is it because wheel group is lower on the pole than root?

thanks again for solving the problem.

nowshining · 12-01-2007, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disillusionist

Do not run the command in the previous post!

The /etc/sudoers file should be owned by root with -r--r----- permissions.

As root:

Code:

chown root:root /etc/sudoers
chmod 440 /etc/sudoers

If you want members of the wheel group to be able to run sudo commands add an entry in the sudoers file for them using visudo to edit (either via sudo or as root):

Code:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Group to assign permissions Machine=(user to run command as) Command(s) to run

Damn, I was a bit slow with my typing!

i myself thought i had it right, but i myself was following the error to change user to 0 but ahhh now i get what the error was saying darn it, OWNED BY USER 0 which is root, ahhh! root

i mis-read the prompt but i was close i'll remember that the next time it comes for an asnwer or incase I myself have any trouble..

btmiller · 12-01-2007, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by usafitz

Sweet btmiller, that worked beautifully. So what I am seeing is that the file was not owned by root anymore for some reason. Wheel group owned it.

that being the case, if I am a member of wheel group, why wouldn't it work anyway. Is it because wheel group is lower on the pole than root?

thanks again for solving the problem.

IIRC, sudo checks the permissions of the sudoers file and if they are not what they should be, the program will refuse to work. This is meant to avoid situations where a careless admin would allow non-root users to edit sudoers and thus elevate their privileges.