Diagnosing security configuration issues

Finding and remediating attachment failures

When you apply a configuration to a group of repositories, some repositories may fail to attach, typically because of a conflict between existing repository settings and the configuration you applied. When this happens, only some settings are applied to the affected repositories, and those repositories won't inherit future changes to the configuration.

On the security configuration settings page, in the Repositories tab under "Apply configurations", a banner shows how many repositories have an attachment failure and summarizes the reason. Click the link in the banner, or filter the repository list by config-status:failed, to see affected repositories and guidance on how to remediate each failure.

1. In the upper-right corner of GitHub, click your profile picture, then click Organizations.

2. Under your organization name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the "Security" section of the sidebar, select the Advanced Security dropdown menu, then click Configurations.

4. Click the Repositories tab.

5. In the "Apply configurations" section, filter by config-status:failed.

6. From the results list, for the repository you're interested in, click Failed REASON.

7. In the dialog box, review the information and follow the remediation guidance.

Finding and remediating removed configurations

A repository's configuration status changes to removed when a repository admin changes a security setting that conflicts with the applied configuration. The configuration is still associated with the repository, but the repository no longer inherits all settings from the configuration.

To find and remediate repositories with a removed status:

1. In the upper-right corner of GitHub, click your profile picture, then click Organizations.

2. Under your organization name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the "Security" section of the sidebar, select the Advanced Security dropdown menu, then click Configurations.

4. Filter the repository list using the "Configuration status" filter and select "Removed."

5. To restore the intended settings, re-apply the configuration to the affected repositories.

6. To prevent future overrides, consider enabling enforcement on the configuration. See Security configuration enforcement.

Finding and remediating enterprise-removed configurations

A repository's configuration status changes to removed_by_enterprise when an enterprise-level change conflicts with the organization-level configuration applied to the repository.

To find and remediate repositories with a removed_by_enterprise status:

1. In the upper-right corner of GitHub, click your profile picture, then click Organizations.

2. Under your organization name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the "Security" section of the sidebar, select the Advanced Security dropdown menu, then click Configurations.

4. Filter the repository list using the "Configuration status" filter and select "Removed by enterprise."

5. Coordinate with your enterprise admin to resolve the conflict between the enterprise-level and organization-level configurations.

6. Re-apply the configuration at the organization or enterprise level.

For more information about all configuration statuses, see Security configuration statuses.