Patent ID: 8364957

Claim:
A method for authentication in a network, the method comprising: creating a credential string on a portal server, the credential string being an encrypted hash of a session ID; sending a UserID associated with the session ID and the credential string to a software application from the portal server, while maintaining the user password on the portal server and avoiding exposing the user password to network resources beyond the portal server; receiving a confirmation request from the software application to an LDAP proxy while maintaining the user password on the portal server such that the user password is not required to authenticate the User ID, the confirmation request including the credential string; and sending a response from the LDAP proxy in reply to the confirmation request to validate the credential string to authenticate the UserID, wherein: user access to the software application is linked to the portal server without re-entering software application information including a username and password during a session initiated by a successful authentication; and a new credential string is generated by the portal server for each request to access the software application.