java- How do programmatically change user to root before changing file permissions?

In Java, I would like to dynamically change the file permission of a Linux file. I have tried to set it with Files.setPosixFilePermissions as suggested from this other source: How do I programmatically change file permissions?, but I am getting the error

java.nio.file.FileSystemException: : Operation not permitted

I figured out that I am unable to set the file permissions as a user, since the file is owned by root. My question is: Is it possible to execute Files.setPosixFilePermissions by switching from user to root in java? And then switching back to user when done?

Here is the bulk of my code:

String path = "/usr/local/bin/driver"; try { Utility.setAsExecutable(path); } catch (IOException e) { logger.error("Unable to set driver as executable."); e.printStackTrace(); } public static void setAsExecutable(String filePath) throws IOException { // using PosixFilePermission to set file permissions 755 Set<PosixFilePermission> perms = new HashSet<PosixFilePermission>(); perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_READ); perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_WRITE); perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_EXECUTE); perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_READ); perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_EXECUTE); perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_READ); perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_EXECUTE); Files.setPosixFilePermissions(Paths.get(filePath), perms); logger.info("Modified as executable " + filePath); }