Abstract: For communicating securely between network nodes, a method transmits a port knock sequence comprising ordered empty protocol packets from an origination node to a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of a destination node. The port knock sequence encodes at least one vocabulary phrase. The method transmits the length of the at least one vocabulary phrase to first and second helper nodes. The method generates a corresponding substitute phrase for each at least one vocabulary phrase through communication between the first helper node and the second helper node. The method receives the corresponding substitute phrase for each at least one vocabulary phrase at the origination node and the destination node. The method generates a node nonce based on the at least one corresponding substitute phrase. The method securely communicates between the origination node and the destination node using the node nonce.