About two-factor authentication for organizations
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an extra layer of security used when logging into websites or apps. You can require all members and outside collaborators in your organization to enable two-factor authentication on GitHub Enterprise Server. For more information about two-factor authentication, see Securing your account with two-factor authentication (2FA).
Warning
- When you require use of two-factor authentication for your organization, members and outside collaborators who do not use 2FA will be removed from the organization and lose access to its repositories. They will also lose access to their forks of the organization's private repositories. You can reinstate their access privileges and settings if they enable two-factor authentication for their personal account within three months of their removal from your organization. For more information, see Reinstating a former member of your organization.
- You will also need to enable 2FA for unattended or shared access accounts, such as bots and service accounts. If you do not configure 2FA for these unattended accounts after you've enabled required two-factor authentication, the accounts will be removed from the organization and lose access to their repositories. For more information, see Managing bots and service accounts with two-factor authentication.
- If an organization owner, member, or outside collaborator disables 2FA for their personal account after you've enabled required two-factor authentication, they will automatically be removed from the organization.
- If you're the sole owner of an organization that requires two-factor authentication, you won't be able to disable 2FA for your personal account without disabling required two-factor authentication for the organization.
Authentication methods that support 2FA
| Authentication Method | Description | Two-factor authentication support |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in | Authentication is performed against personal accounts that are stored on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance. | Supported and managed on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance. Organization owners can require 2FA to be enabled for members of the organization. |
| Built-in authentication with an identity provider | Authentication is performed against accounts that are stored on the identity provider. | Dependent on the identity provider. |
| LDAP | Allows integration with your company directory service for authentication. | Supported and managed on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance. Organization owners can require 2FA to be enabled for members of the organization. |
| SAML | Authentication is performed on an external identity provider. | Not supported or managed on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance, but may be supported by the external authentication provider. Two-factor authentication enforcement on organizations is not available. |
| CAS | Single sign-on service is provided by an external server. | Not supported or managed on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance, but may be supported by the external authentication provider. Two-factor authentication enforcement on organizations is not available. |
Prerequisites
Before you can require organization members and outside collaborators to use two-factor authentication, you must enable 2FA for your account on GitHub Enterprise Server. For more information, see Securing your account with two-factor authentication (2FA).
Before you require use of two-factor authentication, we recommend notifying organization members and outside collaborators and asking them to set up 2FA for their accounts. You can see if members and outside collaborators already use 2FA. For more information, see Viewing whether users in your organization have 2FA enabled.
Requiring two-factor authentication in your organization
- In the upper-right corner of GitHub, select your profile photo, then click Your organizations**.
- Next to the organization, click Settings.
- In the "Security" section of the sidebar, click Authentication security.
- Under "Two-factor authentication", select Require two-factor authentication for everyone in your organization, then click Save.
- If prompted, read the information about members and outside collaborators who will be removed from the organization.
- To confirm the change, click Confirm.
Viewing people who were removed from your organization
To view people who were automatically removed from your organization for non-compliance when you required two-factor authentication, you can search your organization's audit log for people removed from your organization. The audit log event will show if a person was removed for 2FA non-compliance. For more information, see Reviewing the audit log for your organization.
- In the upper-right corner of GitHub, select your profile photo, then click Your organizations**.
- Next to the organization, click Settings.
- In the "Archive" section of the sidebar, click Logs, then click Audit log.
- Enter your search query. To search for outside collaborators removed, use
action:org.remove_outside_collaboratorin your search query
You can also view people who were removed from your organization by using a time frame in your search.
Helping removed outside collaborators rejoin your organization
If any outside collaborators are removed from the organization when you enable required use of two-factor authentication, they'll receive an email notifying them that they've been removed. They should then enable 2FA for their personal account, and contact an organization owner to request access to your organization.