Users in the North America region have reported frequent 504 gateway timeout errors when trying to authenticate into MFA-protected services, prompting Microsoft to look into a serious service degradation impacting Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) throughout its Microsoft 365 suite. The incident started at around 8:22 PM IST (2:52 PM UTC) on February 23, 2026, and is still being investigated. It is tracked under issue ID MO1237461.

Access to Microsoft 365 apps, portals, and any downstream services that depend on MFA as part of their authentication flow is being blocked as a result of users trying to finish MFA challenges receiving 504 Gateway Timeout responses.

The gateway layer returns a timeout to the end user when an upstream server—in this case, probably part of Microsoft's authentication infrastructure—fails to respond within the anticipated time window, as indicated by the 504 error. On its service health dashboard, Microsoft verified the incident and classified it as a service degradation rather than a total outage, indicating that, depending on request routing, some users might still be able to authenticate occasionally. If policies permit, try logging in using a different network, device, or browser.

If not, temporarily turn off MFA prompts (not advised for production accounts). If access that is essential for business is blocked, get in touch with Microsoft Support. This is an evolving narrative.

The same incident details have been posted in the last hour by multiple real-time news sources, and Microsoft's official @MSFT365Status account on X has begun to share updates. Since comprehensive incident information is typically shared there first, users are advised to keep an eye on their tenant's service health dashboard for the most recent updates.