ARTIFACTORY: Why GitHub Dependabot security updates are failing with 401 Authentication error, when it initiates a connection with Artifactory npm private registry for security updates

AuthorFullName__c
Bandi Harish Goud
articleNumber
000005543
FirstPublishedDate
2023-01-08T08:06:08Z
lastModifiedDate
2025-07-22

ARTIFACTORY: Why GitHub Dependabot security updates are failing with 401 Authentication error, when it initiates a connection with Artifactory npm private registry for security updates

Dependabot security updates are automated pull requests that help you update dependencies with known vulnerabilities. If you have any Artifactory npm private registry configured for Depandabot security updates it fails with 401 Authentication error.

Issue Description

I have an Artifactory npm private repository configured for security updates in my GitHub Depandabot.yaml file.
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Version updates succeed but security updates fail with the below error and this is an issue on GitHub side.
 

pdater | INFO <job_559331322> Checking if jquery 1.12.3 needs updating
  proxy | 2022/12/26 11:21:33 [012] GET https://url.jfrog.io:443/artifactory/api/npm/npm-test/jquery
  proxy | 2022/12/26 11:21:34 [012] 401 https://url.jfrog.io:443/artifactory/api/npm/npm-test/jquery
updater | INFO <job_559331322> Handled error whilst updating jquery: private_source_authentication_failure {:source=>"url.jfrog.io/artifactory/api/npm/npm-test"}
Workaround

We need to remove the target-branch property from dependabot.yaml for it to work.
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