To establish a sign on session among single sign on (SSO)-enabled applications, a user can be prompted by an application for an access code. An access interval key can be generated using a key derivative function based on the access code. The access interval key can be considered a session key, and it can be used during a valid SSO session to decrypt a master key stored in a shared memory. In turn, the master key can be used to encrypt and decrypt the contents of the shared memory. To securely distribute the access interval key among the SSO-enabled applications during a current session, individual SSO-enabled applications can each store a public key in the shared memory. The access interval key can then be encrypted, respectively, by the public keys of the SSO-enabled applications and stored in the shared memory to be retrieved securely by the SSO-enabled applications.