Systems and methods for authenticating presumptively incompatible elements in a digital network are provided. A method may include receiving an access request from a client node in the network. The access request may be requesting access to an application in the network. The access request may be associated with a uniform resource identifier (“authURI”). The method may include extracting a target application from the URI. The method may include determining an authentication protocol that is supported by the target application. The method may include generating, based on the authentication protocol, a series of one or more authentication tests that, in combination, satisfy the authentication protocol. The authentication tests may satisfy the authentication protocol even when the client node natively supports a different authentication protocol. The method may include executing the series of authentication tests to authenticate the client node vis-à-vis the target application.