Segmentation fault after sudo commands

Question

I've modified (in some wrong way) the file etc/sudoers in my Mac OS X 10.6.8.

For this reason I've erased the wrong line and replaced the original file. But now whenever I type sudo commands the output is:

sudo: /etc/sudoers is owned by uid 501, should be 0
Segmentation fault

A solution could be this but when I type su (and the password) the output is:

su: Sorry

How can I fix this problem?

Answer 1

I've followed these steps to enabling and using the "root" user in Mac OS X.

In this way I can use the fix posted in my question.

Answer 2

Try sudo -u root vim /etc/sudoers , replacing 'root' with the user that you were logged in as when originally modifying /etc/sudoers. Then make any needed changes, save and quit, and try again.

I ran into this issue when adding source ~/.bash_profile to my ~/.bashrc file while logged in as root. Running sudo -u root vim ~/.bashrc as a non-root user and deleting the source ~/.bash_profile line fixed my issue.

Answer 3

You'll need to login as root directly, or boot into a root console, in order to change the ownership of the /etc/sudoers file.

Answer 4

For the record, there is an easier way to fix this on OS X: run Disk Utility, select the volume in the sidebar, then the First Aid tab, and click Repair Disk Permissions. /etc/sudoers is one of the system files it knows the "correct" permissions for, so it'll take care of it for you.