Description
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.
Published: 2026-07-21
Score: 6.8 Medium
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
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History

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 02:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description 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.
Title TeX Live SyncTeX Parser Heap Use-After-Free via Malformed SyncTeX File
Weaknesses CWE-416
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.6, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.8, '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'}

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: VulnCheck

Published:

Updated: 2026-07-21T01:35:41.899Z

Reserved: 2026-07-17T21:21:58.625Z

Link: CVE-2026-63729

cve-icon Vulnrichment

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cve-icon NVD

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cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses