A method and apparatus for an system and process for sharing a secret over an unsecured channel in conjunction with an authentication system. A client computes a message authentication code based on a hashed password value and a first random string received from the server. The client sends a response to the server that includes authentication data including a second random string. Both the client and server concatenate the first random string, second random string and username. Theses values are processed to generate as a shared master secret to further generate shared secrets or keys to establish a secured communication channel between the client and server. The secured communication can be based on stateless messaging where the decryption key associated with the message is identified by the message authentication code, which is placed within the message.