[Linux-disciples] Grumble: changed /etc/sudoers mode, need to fix it, can't reboot

[Stephen R Laniel]

I changed the sudoers permissions temporarily to
> (15:48 -0400) slaniel at akamai_DESKTOP:~$ ls /etc/sudoers
> -rw-r----- 1 root root 894 2011-06-08 15:13 /etc/sudoers

So now if I try to change them back, I can't:

> (15:48 -0400) slaniel at akamai_DESKTOP:~$ sudo chmod 0440 !$
> sudo chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers
> sudo: /etc/sudoers is mode 0640, should be 0440
> sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting

All the Googling I do tells me to reboot into single-user mode as root, fix the permissions there, and be done with it.

Which would be fine, except that I'm nowhere near the physical machine right now. Anyone know how to change the permissions back without rebooting?

Or, if I could reboot with "chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers" in some boot script, that would be fine. But the boot scripts all require you to be root to edit them ... and becoming root is something I can't do.

Thoughts? Ideas? Will I just have to wait until I get back to the computer?

-- 
Stephen R. Laniel
steve at stevereads.com
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