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.
Affected products
Version statuses are supplied by the assigning organization. Consult the original record for detailed ranges and platform conditions.
TeX Live TeX Live
Default version status: affected
0 to ≤ TeX Live 2025affectedTeX Live 2026unaffected
References
- https://github.com/TeX-Live/texlive-source/ ↗
- https://github.com/TeX-Live/texlive-source/commit/002dcd3eac30db5c352f53d4181737961cc7ee9a ↗
- https://fatihhcelik.github.io/posts/evince-synctex-heap-use-after-free/ ↗
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/tex-live-synctex-parser-heap-use-after-free-via-malformed-synctex-file ↗