Permission inheritance

Also known as: broken permission inheritance, broken inheritance, unique permissions

SharePoint sites, lists, folders and files inherit their permissions from their parent by default. When inheritance is broken, the item gets unique permissions that are managed on their own.

Rencore Governance flags broken inheritance with SharePoint policies, and built-in actions restore it on a site, list, folder or file. Restoring inheritance gives the item the permissions of its parent again.

Each item with unique permissions is one more place where access can differ from what the site owner expects. Sites with broken inheritance are part of finding and fixing oversharing, the first step before a Copilot rollout.

For example, the policy SharePoint site has broken permission inheritance lists sites whose permissions differ from their parent, and SharePoint subsite has unique permissions does the same for subsites.

To fix one site, open it in the inventory and run the built-in action Restore broken inheritance for SharePoint Site. The same action exists for lists, folders and files.