A determination is made that an authentication mechanism is unable to complete an attempt to authenticate, in association with a user attempting to access an application, user credentials. The user credentials include a user identifier and an additional authentication factor. An access allowance rate for the authentication mechanism is identified. The access allowance rate is based on a plurality of prior completed authentication attempts associated with the user identifier. A determination is made that the access allowance rate satisfies a set of criteria. In response to the determination that the authentication mechanism is unable to complete the authentication attempt and further in response to the determination that the access allowance rate satisfies the set of criteria, the user is allowed access to the application.