Sudo comes up with an error, cannot run anything as root

Question

For some reason, when I try to run any programs (I am trying to run a rootkit hunter: rkhunter) as root on the command line with sudo like this:

sudo rkhunter

Then I get this message:

You must be the root user to run this program

and then I get these lines:

sudo: error in /etc/sudo.conf, line 0 while loading plugin 'sudoers_policy'
sudo: /usr/lib/sudo/sudoers.so must only be writable by owner
sudo: fatal error, unable to load plugins

I try typing in just sudo but that comes up with the same three errors as above. Also in /etc/ sudo.conf does not exist.

I cannot run any other programs as root through sudo. It was also strange because I could run as root a day ago. I would like it to work.
Just so you know, I am the only user of this computer, and the administrator, running Lubuntu 14.04.1.

score 44 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 08 '23 at 07:35

44

If you can login as root:

$ su root     #enter password
$ chmod 644 /usr/lib/sudo/sudoers.so
$ chown -R root /usr/lib/sudo

**

on ubuntu 22.04 the proper directory for sudoers.so is /usr/libexec/sudo/sudoers.so

**

If not, you'll have to startup in recovery mode, get write permission on your disk, and change the mode of that file. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode

$ mount -o remount,rw /
$ chmod 644 /usr/lib/sudo/sudoers.so

**

on ubuntu 22.04 the proper directory for sudoers.so is /usr/libexec/sudo/sudoers.so

**

edited Jun 08 '23 at 07:35

Stephen Brady

5
2

answered Jun 17 '15 at 05:41

aldwinaldwin

874
7
6

I'm using a headless raspberry pi - how would I start in recovery mode without a keyboard or monitor? – Big Money Jun 15 '19 at 20:46
Doesn't it have a sdcard that you easily can adjust on your desktop/laptop? – aldwinaldwin Jun 17 '19 at 00:36
It does have an sdcard, good thinking, I can just plug it in and boot from there – Big Money Jun 17 '19 at 20:20
2021, still works :) – Olubodun Agbalaya May 03 '21 at 19:47
You can also login as root on WSL using `wsl -u root` from PowerShell or CMD – Barney Chambers Apr 05 '23 at 14:06

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 21 '18 at 06:12

1st open your terminal then type and enter

pkexec su

it will log you in as a root user

now type (replace username with your PC's username):

chown -R username /usr/lib/

now open file explorer and goto /usr or type this in another terminal: nautilus /usr

now, right click on the lib folder and goto 'Permissions' tab.

From there change the access of 'Group' and 'Others' to- 'Access files'

now click on the button 'Change Permissions for Enclosed Files' now change the access of 'Group' and 'Others' to- 'Access files' or 'Read-only'.

now close that window and return to the terminal(the one with root user).

now type

chown -R root /usr/lib/

voila!

now you can use sudo again.

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 08 '23 at 13:27

If you can't login as root, then start Ubuntu in recovery mode, from the menu select "Drop to shell prompt", press Enter, and then type the following:

mount -o remount,rw /
mount --all
chmod 644 /usr/lib/sudo/sudoers.so
chown -R /usr/lib/sudo/

You should be able to run "sudo" commands now, including here, in recovery mode console, for example you can just run sudo to test if it was fixed.

**

on ubuntu 22.04 the proper directory for sudoers.so is /usr/libexec/sudo/sudoers.so

**

Sudo comes up with an error, cannot run anything as root

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