CVE-2026-63729

MEDIUM

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

Title source: cna
STIX 2.1

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.

Scores

CVSS v3 6.6
EPSS 0.0012
EPSS Percentile 2.5%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-416
Status published
Products (2)
TeX Live/TeX Live < TeX Live 2025
TeX Live/TeX Live TeX Live 2026
Published Jul 21, 2026
Tracked Since Jul 21, 2026