sysPass is a PHP web application for multiuser password management that encrypts stored credentials with AES-256 in CTR mode and gives businesses and individuals a browser-based interface for organizing shared accounts, users, groups and access profiles.

What it is

sysPass is a web-based password manager written in PHP and published under GPL-3.0, described in its own README as a "PHP web based Password Manager for business and personal use." Credentials are protected with AES-256 encryption in CTR mode, while RSA is used for sending passwords from forms, and the interface is built on HTML5 and Ajax. The project lives in the PHP and MySQL ecosystem: it stores its data in MySQL and can authenticate users against MySQL itself, OpenLDAP or Active Directory, so it slots into the directory infrastructure an organization already runs.

The concrete problem it solves is keeping credentials under central, role-aware control when more than one person needs them. The README describes users, groups and profiles management with up to 29 access levels, which is the machinery a single-user password manager does not provide. In that sense the thing it replaces is the personal-vault model applied to an organization: sysPass adds private accounts, public links, tags, custom fields, favorites, history, an event log, and activity notifications by email and in-app, so that shared access is recorded rather than informal.

Key capabilities

• AES-256 encryption in CTR mode for stored credentials, with RSA used to send passwords from forms.
• Two-factor authentication alongside the normal login.
• Users, groups and profiles management with up to 29 access levels.
• Authentication against MySQL, OpenLDAP or Active Directory.
• Organizational features including tags, custom fields, public links, private accounts, favorites and history.
• A JSON-RPC API for integration with other systems.
• An HTML5 and Ajax interface with email and in-app activity notifications, an event log, and multilingual support.

Who uses it and how

• Businesses that need a shared credential store rather than individual vaults, using the 29 access levels to separate what each user and group can reach.
• Organizations already running OpenLDAP or Active Directory, which can authenticate sysPass users against those directories instead of maintaining a separate set of accounts.
• Teams that automate credential handling through the JSON-RPC API, for example to connect sysPass to other internal tooling.
• Operators who prefer container deployment, using the published Docker image on Docker Hub rather than assembling a PHP stack by hand.
• Individuals, since the README scopes the project to personal use as well as business use; private accounts exist for credentials that should not be shared.

Getting started

Installation instructions and documentation are published at doc.syspass.org, and a Docker image is available on Docker Hub as nuxsmin/docker-syspass. The project homepage is syspass.org.

How it compares

The facts provided name no competing tools and no list of paid products that sysPass replaces, so no feature-by-feature or licence comparison can be made here; on the record given, it stands alone in this registry. What can be stated is structural: it is GPL-3.0 software deployed onto PHP and MySQL infrastructure that the operator controls.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must operate a PHP web application and a MySQL database, and must additionally run OpenLDAP or Active Directory and email delivery if directory authentication and email notifications are wanted. Teams that want a managed service with nothing to operate, or that are not prepared to maintain a PHP stack, should look elsewhere. Prospective adopters should also weigh the README's sparseness — it is a feature checklist that defers all installation detail to external documentation — and the repository's 280 open issues against its 994 stars.