Oracle Linux - sudo: error in /etc/sudo.conf, line X while loading plugin "sudoers_policy"

Applies to:
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Version N/A and later
Linux x86-64

Symptoms:
When attempting to use sudo, the following error occurs:

$ sudo systemctl status firewalld

sudo: error in /etc/sudo.conf, line 19 while loading plugin "sudoers_policy"

sudo: /usr/libexec/sudo/sudoers.so must be only be writable by owner

sudo: fatal error, unable to load plugins

Cause:
The error is caused by incorrect file permissions on /usr/libexec/sudo/sudoers.so ; The file must only be writable by root.

However, the file had broader write permissions that violated this rule, it was set with write permissions for users or groups other than root.