Legacy authentication for user authentication with self-signed certificate and identity verification

A method for authenticating a user to a verifying computer over a network, comprising:

• generating a self-signed certificate signed by a private key on a user device;
• transmitting the self-signed certificate to a verifying computer over the network;
• redirecting the self-signed certificate chain to an authentication server;
• providing a user name, user password and verifying computer address to the authentication server;
• storing the user name, user password and verifying computer address in association with the self-signed certificate chain in a password database accessible by the authentication server;
• receiving, at the authentication server, a subsequent communication intended for the verifying computer, the subsequent communication including the self-signed certificate;
• looking up an associated user name and user password associated with the self-signed certificate in the password database;
• and
• transmitting the associated user name and user password to the verifying computer.

A system for authenticating a user to a verifying computer over a network, comprising:

• (a) a user device including a processor and non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon software instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to generate control signals for executing the steps comprising
• generating a self-signed root certificate signed by a root private key on the user device, wherein the root private key is stored on the user device, and the signing of the self-signed root certificate by the root private key occurs on the user device;
• generating an intermediate private key from a hardware security module (HSM) on the user device;
• signing an intermediate certificate with the root private key;
• linking the intermediate certificate to the self-signed root certificate to form a user device certificate chain, the certificate chain including a public key corresponding to the intermediate private key;
• transmitting the user device certificate chain to a verifying computer over the network;
• (b) a password database;
• (c) an authenticating server including a processor and non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon software instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to generate control signals for authenticating a user to a verifying computer over a network, by executing the steps comprising
• receiving the self-signed certificate redirected to the authenticating server;
• receiving a user name, user password and verifying computer address from the user device;
• storing the user name, user password and verifying computer address in association with the self-signed certificate chain in the password database;
• receiving a subsequent communication intended for the verifying computer, the subsequent communication including the self-signed certificate;
• looking up an associated user name and user password associated with the self-signed certificate in the password database;
• and
• transmitting the associated user name and user password to the verifying computer.