I messed up some config files, now all my users have lost sudo priv :(

[Gabriel Dragffy]

Gabriel Dragffy wrote:
> Today I did something insanely stupid.
> 
> I added a user using useradd (strange that eh?). OK so I wanted to let 
> this new user have sudo privs.
> 
> What I did was this (don't laugh at me!):
> sudo vim /etc/group
> 
> Then appended the new user name to the end of the same groups as the 
> original user (groups such as adm, and admin). Saved and exited. I try 
> to run superuser command with the current user (the original one) it 
> tells me I'm not in the sudoers file!?? Change to the newly created 
> user, and the same story. Now I've lost all admin privs, and there is no 
> way I can fix it until I get to work and reboot in recovery mode.
> 
> My question is - how to fix it? What did I actually break?
> 
> essentially my group files looked something like:
> admin:x:108:originaluser:newuser:
> 
> Thanks so much for the help. My life is on the line with this one 
> because the server is an essential web and svn server for the company  - 
>   argh!!
> 

Thanks to all who responded. I fixed it just this morning. The users 
needed to be a comma-separated list.
Many thanks.
Gabriel