Abstract: Described are a system and method for securely distributing session keys over a network to each node in a chain of computer system nodes. The chain of nodes recursively constructs and presents a nested request to the authentication server. The nested request includes a request from each of the nodes in the chain requiring a session key to communicate with a neighboring node. The authentication server recursively unravels the request and recursively prepares a response that includes a session key for each node that submitted a request. The response traverses the chain of nodes in the reverse order taken by the nested request to reach the authentication server. Each node receiving the response extracts the portion of the response directed to that node, and forwards the remainder of the response, if any, to the next node in the chain. Thus, with a single traversal of the chain of nodes each node receives at least one session key.