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I accidentally ran this command chmod -R 755 /usr/bin on my remote server [Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS], and I don't have the root password.

When I run sudo it gives me sudo: must be setuid root, This is the /bin folder permissions

drwsr-xr-x   2 deployer root 40960 juil. 23 11:54 bin

SSH connexion is the only access I have to my remote server.

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  • that setup looks really strange, can you post an ls -al /bin/chmod? Is it +s as well?
    – noleti
    Jul 23, 2014 at 13:48
  • for ls -al /bin/chmod-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 51760 nov. 19 2012 /bin/chmod
    – ayb
    Jul 23, 2014 at 13:53
  • Ok, so no +s unfortunately. But sudo is not owned by root any more? How did you manage that? can you add ls -al /usr/bin/sudo? The directory properties you currently have are not that interesting.
    – noleti
    Jul 23, 2014 at 13:55
  • for ls -al /usr/bin/sudo -rwxrwxr-x 2 deployer root 71288 févr. 27 2013 /usr/bin/sudo
    – ayb
    Jul 23, 2014 at 13:58
  • 3
    ... that was certainly not the result of chmod -R 755 /usr/bin. Without root password, and without option to boot into recovery console or boot from USB, I say your system is screwed.
    – noleti
    Jul 23, 2014 at 14:01

1 Answer 1

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Your error message is caused by sudo being owned by deployer, in addition, the rights are set incorrectly. To fix the permissions, try something like chmod 4755 /usr/bin/sudo, as you own sudo currently.

To fix the ownership, you need to run chown root:root /usr/bin/sudo ...but you might need to be root for that. Unless you have +s set on /bin/chown, and without root password or recovery console/alternative boot method, there is probably no way. So, you can try the above chown command with your normal user, but most likely you will have to re-install.

More similar questions:

Error after sudo-ing "sudo: must be setuid root"

sudo: must be setuid root

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  • Thanks for accepting the answer. Were you able to fix the setup with chown? Can you update your question with the Info I asked for in the comments?
    – noleti
    Jul 23, 2014 at 23:12
  • When i ran 'chown root:root /usr/bin/sudo' it gives ...Operation not allower. I think i will re-install the systeme,
    – ayb
    Jul 23, 2014 at 23:20

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