Requiring two-factor authentication in your organization
Organization owners can require organization members and outside collaborators to enable two-factor authentication for their personal accounts, making it harder for malicious actors to access an organization's repositories and settings.
In this article
- Authentication methods that support 2FA
- Requirements for enforcing two-factor authentication
- Viewing people who were removed from your organization
- Helping removed members and outside collaborators rejoin your organization
- Further reading
Authentication methods that support 2FA
| Authentication Method | Description | Two-factor authentication support |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in | Authentication is performed against user accounts that are stored on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance. | Supported and managed on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance. Organization administrators can require 2FA to be enabled for members of the organization. |
| Built-in authentication with an identity provider | Authentication is performed against user accounts that are stored on the identity provider. | Dependant on the identity provider. |
| LDAP | Allows integration with your company directory service for authentication. | Supported and managed on the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance. Organization administrators 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. |
Requirements for enforcing two-factor authentication
Before you can require organization members and outside collaborators to use 2FA, you must enable two-factor authentication for your own personal account.
Warnings:
- When you require use of two-factor authentication for your organization, members and outside collaborators (including bot accounts) 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.
- 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.
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 on your organization's People page.
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In the top right corner of GitHub Enterprise, click your profile photo, then click Your profile.
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On the left side of your profile page, under "Organizations", click the icon for your organization.
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Under your organization name, click Settings.
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In the organization settings sidebar, click Security.
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Under "Authentication", select Require two-factor authentication for everyone in your organization, then click Save.
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If prompted, read the information about members and outside collaborators who will be removed from the organization. Type your organization's name to confirm the change, then click Remove members & require two-factor authentication.
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.
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In the top right corner of GitHub Enterprise, click your profile photo, then click Your profile.
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On the left side of your profile page, under "Organizations", click the icon for your organization.
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In the Settings sidebar, click Audit log.
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Enter your search query. To search for:
- Organization members removed, use
action:org.remove_memberin your search query - 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.
- Organization members removed, use
Helping removed members and outside collaborators rejoin your organization
If any members or 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.