Security Level Selected on Transition Screen Does Not Update Issue Security Level

Question

Hi Atlassian Community,

I am experiencing an issue with the Security Level field on a workflow transition screen and am trying to determine whether this is a configuration issue, limitation, or bug.

Problem

I added the native Security Level field to a transition screen. The field appears correctly, and users can select a different Security Level from the dropdown.

However, when the transition is completed, the issue's Security Level does not update to the selected value. The issue moves to the next status but retains its previous Security Level.

This is causing an issue with a workflow validator. The goal is to prevent an issue from leaving Inbox while its Security Level is still set to Inbox. The transition screen allows the user to select a different Security Level before proceeding, but that selection is not being applied to the issue.

Expected Behavior

When a user selects a different Security Level on the transition screen, I would expect Jira to update the issue to that Security Level when the transition is completed.

What could be causing this behavior? Is this a known limitation or bug with the Security Level field on transition screens, or is there something in the workflow configuration that could prevent the selected value from being applied?

Any insight into why this is occurring or how to resolve it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Tomislav Tobijas · Answer

Interesting case @Alyson Griffin 👀 Didn't experience that myself… Would be great to hear what worked in the end and what was the root cause to this behavior.

What I could recommend as a workaround would be to temporarily build an automation rule that would clear this security level on/after transition. ⚡ (not ideal, but well)

If you're on a paid plan, your admin could reach out to Atlassian Support to see if they can dig anything up from the backend perspective.

Cheers,

Tobi

Viswanathan Ramachandran · Answer

On top of what Gabriela mentioned..

* Can you check if the user has the Set Issue Security permission ?
* Did you check your automation audit log ?
* Do you have any workflow properties set on the status?
* Are there any post functions for Issue Security?

Try performing the exact transition using a Jira Site Admin account. If the field updates correctly for an admin,  it is a Set Issue Security permission issue.

Gabriela - LeanZero · Answer

Hi Alyson, I rebuilt this on a company-managed test site today, and once the user had the Set work item security permission, the native Security Level field on a transition screen did save and the validator saw the level you picked on the screen, so on your side I'd suspect either the permission, something acting on the level after the transition, or the validator itself. Three places to look.

The first thing I'd check is the History tab on one of those work items: if the level changed and then changed back, a post function or an automation rule is overwriting it after the transition, and if it didn't change at all, I'd look at that permission, since in my REST test the transition refused the value outright without it, though I didn't test the UI side.

The second is the validator, which doesn't compare against the plain level name; in my test it saw a string holding the name plus the level id, so ^Triaged$ blocked even with Triaged picked and ^(?!Inbox$).+$ didn't block Inbox. What worked for me was (?s)^(?!.*Inbox).*$, or safer by id, (?s)^(?!.*10345).*$ with 10345 swapped for your own Inbox level's id, and the "Field has been changed" validator on Security Level worked too, as long as everything sitting in Inbox is still at the Inbox level.

Could you share how your validator is set up and what History shows?