chmod -R 777 / on ubuntu - numerous problems

Posted by ncatnow on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by ncatnow
Published on 2010-05-14T07:32:24Z Indexed on 2010/05/14 7:34 UTC
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A client has accidentally given the entire filesystem full permissions on their ubuntu 10.04 box.

chmod -R 777 httpdocs/cd /

As you can see they attempted to cd to the root, and instead gave chmod a fun parameter to play with.

First sign of the problem was inability to use 'su', giving an authentication error. sudo also complained of a missing setuid bit. This was fixed by logging in as root from the machine itself, and running chmod +s /usr/bin/sudo.

I can now sudo su and do what I need to as root. su still gives an authentication failure.

I followed the advice here: http://swiss.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1180661&page=2

chmod 0755 /
chmod 0755 /*
chmod 1777 /tmp
chmod 0750 /root
chmod 0700 /lost+found

I then tried to reset root password. I still cannot su to become root, or su root.

The system seems to be running fine. Are there any suggestions for getting su to work once again? Where can I look for more problems?

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