Busybox Su Must Be Suid To Work Properly ~upd~ Jun 2026

Init scripts, package managers (like apk on Alpine Linux), and user management tools that rely on su for privilege escalation will fail unexpectedly.

This process cannot call setuid(0) or execve() a new shell as root because the kernel will block the privilege elevation. The su program will either: busybox su must be suid to work properly

Without the SUID bit, busybox is just a regular program running with regular user permissions. It has no "magic wand" to elevate your status to root. Init scripts, package managers (like apk on Alpine

Fixing the "su: must be suid to work properly" Error in BusyBox busybox su must be suid to work properly

Test it by running su -c 'id' as a normal user.