diff --git a/handel/interface.py b/handel/interface.py
index d843c4b69c403e2fbc91ebdc9c34a013f77bffed..4d27adecf70e6fee658edd559d0b1334bcec02dd 100644
--- a/handel/interface.py
+++ b/handel/interface.py
@@ -366,4 +366,4 @@ def get_config(filename):
     config = configparser.ConfigParser(
         comment_prefixes=['START', 'END', '#', '*****'])
     config.read(filename)
-    return {key: dict(section) for section in config.items()}
+    return {section: dict(config[section]) for section in config.sections()}
diff --git a/tests/test_interface.py b/tests/test_interface.py
index 502f676f71e0db2003a2a79424fce9a596215c50..4fdff180d849eec303c853d9d5b8c7fa2d897a9f 100644
--- a/tests/test_interface.py
+++ b/tests/test_interface.py
@@ -468,3 +468,4 @@ def test_get_config(interface):
     filename = interface.get_config_files('.')[0]
     d = interface.get_config(filename)
     assert d['detector definitions']['alias'] == 'detector1'
+    assert 'DEFAULT' not in d