Patent attributes
A method for communicating passwords includes receiving at a server a challenge from a authentication server via a first secure communications channel, the challenge comprising a random password that is inactive, communicating the challenge from the server to a client computer via a second secure communications channel, receiving at the server a challenge response from the client computer via the second secure communications channel, the challenge response comprising a digital certificate and a digital signature, the digital certificate including a public key in an encrypted form, the digital signature being determined in response to the random password and the private key, and communicating the challenge response from the server to the authentication server via the first secure communications channel, wherein the random password is activated when the authentication server verifies the challenge response.