CVE-2026-63729 | The SyncTeX parser (synctex_parser.c) shipped with TeX Live … | CVSS 6.6 MEDIUM

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.

Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2026-63729
State: PUBLISHED
Assigner: VulnCheck
Reserved: 2026-07-17 21:21 UTC
Published: 2026-07-21 01:35 UTC
Last updated: 2026-07-21 01:35 UTC
Primary CWE: CWE-416
Use After Free
Vendor / Product: TeX Live / TeX Live
Sources: cve.org · NVD

Severity & Metrics

6.6 MEDIUM CVSS 3.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H

Affected products (1)

Vendor	Product	Platform	Versions
TeX Live	TeX Live	—	0 ≤ TeX Live 2025, TeX Live 2026

Weakness (CWE)

CWE	Source	Description
CWE-416	cna	Use After Free

CVSS scores (2)

Score	Severity	Version	Source	Vector
6.8	MEDIUM	4.0	cna	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
6.6	MEDIUM	3.1	cna	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H

References (4)