Systems and methods for unattended authentication of software applications to provide these applications with access to shared resources. A server password manager (SPM) module resident on a node also occupied by a requester software application requesting access to resources receives the requestor's request. The SPM module creates a request package containing the requestor's information as well as the node's identifying information. The request package is then transmitted to a credentials manager (CM) module in a CM node. The request package, encrypted by the SPM module with encryption keys previously generated by the CM module, is decrypted by the CM module. The contents are checked against data stored by the CM module regarding the SPM module and the requestor application when these were registered with the CM. If the data matches, then the CM provides credentials which are used to give the requestor application access to the requested resources.