CVE-2026-63729 PUBLISHED

TeX Live SyncTeX Parser Heap Use-After-Free via Malformed SyncTeX File

Assigner: VulnCheck
Reserved: 17.07.2026 Published: 21.07.2026 Updated: 21.07.2026

The SyncTeX parser (synctex_parser.c) shipped with TeX Live and embedded by downstream consumers such as GNOME Evince contains a heap use-after-free vulnerability that allows attackers to crash applications or potentially execute arbitrary code by supplying a malformed .synctex or .synctex.gz file. A malformed SyncTeX file can construct a ref node with a NULL parent pointer, causing the replacement routine to fail to detach the node from its sibling chain, which triggers recursive freeing of live tree nodes and leaves dangling pointers that are later accessed by the parser during document load.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS Score: 6.8

Product Status

Vendor TeX Live
Product TeX Live
Versions Default: affected
  • affected from 0 to TeX Live 2025 (incl.)
  • Version TeX Live 2026 is unaffected

Credits

  • Fatih Çelik reporter

References

Problem Types

  • Use After Free CWE