Passman: A Password Manager Where the Server Never Sees Your Keys
You've probably got a password manager already. But where does it actually keep your data? If the answer is "some company's servers," you've made a trade: convenience for a certain amount of trust. Passman takes a different route. It's an open source password manager that runs as a Nextcloud app, and the vault keys never touch the server.
What It Does
Passman is a full-featured password manager built for Nextcloud, the self-hosted file sync and collaboration platform. It's written in PHP and distributed as a Nextcloud app, so if you're already running a Nextcloud instance, you're adding a password vault to infrastructure you already control.
The core design decision is right there in the feature list: vault keys are never sent to the server. Your credentials are encrypted with 256-bit AES, and the key material stays on the client side. The server stores encrypted blobs it can't read. Beyond that, Passman covers the ground you'd expect from a serious password manager: multiple vaults, user-defined custom credential fields, a built-in OTP generator, a password analyzer, and secure sharing both internally and via link. It also includes experimental import tools for KeePass, LastPass, DashLane, ZOHO, Clipperz.is, EnPass, and ocPasswords, which matters if you're migrating from something else and don't want to retype a decade of logins.
There's a companion browser extension (a rewrite using modern frontend and extension frameworks, available on the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons) and a native Android app available through Google Play, IzzyOnDroid, and F-Droid.
Why It's Cool
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The threat model is honest. Most hosted password managers ask you to trust that their encryption implementation is correct and that their operators are honest. Passman sidesteps the question: even if someone gets the server, they get ciphertext. For anyone running their own Nextcloud already, that's a meaningful upgrade over syncing a vault file around manually or handing everything to a third party.
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It fits infrastructure you already have. If you're the kind of developer with a Nextcloud box in a closet or on a VPS, Passman is zero new infrastructure. No new service to patch, no new subscription, no new vendor in your life. That's a real practical win.
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The ecosystem is broader than the app itself. A browser extension and a native Android client mean this isn't a web-only toy. Password managers live or die on whether autofill works where you actually log in, and the project has invested in both desktop browsers and mobile.
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Import paths from real tools. The migration list is specific and covers the usual suspects. It's marked experimental, so temper expectations, but the intent is clear: lower the switching cost.
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OTP generation built in. Having one-time password codes in the same vault as the passwords they protect is convenient, and for many people it's the difference between using 2FA everywhere and using it nowhere.
One thing worth noting: the README's security section is referenced but truncated in what's shown here, so if you're evaluating this for serious use, read that section in full on the repo before committing.
How to Try It
Since Passman is a Nextcloud app, the path to running it starts with Nextcloud itself.
- If you don't have Nextcloud yet, set up an instance (self-hosted or otherwise) that meets the version requirements listed in the repo's
appinfo/info.xml— the badges track the supported Nextcloud and PHP versions. - Install Passman as a Nextcloud app from the app store within your instance, or grab it from the repository.
- Create a vault, set your passphrase, and start adding credentials.
If you'd rather kick the tires first, there's a live demo at demo.passman.cc.
For the browser extension, install it from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons. For Android, grab the native app from Google Play, IzzyOnDroid, or F-Droid.
The source, issue tracker, and full documentation live at github.com/nextcloud/passman. There's also a Telegram group ("Passman General Talk") if you want to talk to the people building it.
Final Thoughts
Passman isn't trying to beat the polished commercial password managers on slickness — it's trying to give you the same capability without the trust requirement, on hardware you control. If you already run Nextcloud, this is close to a no-brainer to evaluate: the cost of trying it is an app install, and the payoff is a password vault that your server literally cannot read. If you don't run Nextcloud, adopting one just for Passman is a bigger commitment, though the platform does plenty else. Either way, the "keys never leave the client" design is the right instinct, and it's worth a look.
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