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.

There are packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability referenced in the following CVE:

  - 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. (CVE-2026-63729)

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2026-104941 advisory.

    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.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SLED15 / SLED_SAP15 / SLES15 / SLES_SAP15 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2026:3512-1 advisory.

    This update for evince fixes the following issue:

    - CVE-2026-63729: texlive: heap use-after-free in `synctex_parser.c` via a malformed `.synctex` or     `.synctex.gz` file       (bsc#1272433).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - 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. (CVE-2026-63729)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Type	Severity
460862	Echo: texlive-bin: security update to 2024.20240313.70630+ds-6+e1	Tenable Cloud Security	Echo Local Security Checks	Local	medium
460862	Echo: texlive-bin: security update to 2024.20240313.70630+ds-6+e1	Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security	Echo Local Security Checks	Local	medium
341471	Unity Linux 20.1070e Security Update: texlive-base (UTSA-2026-104941)	Nessus	Unity Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
333024	SUSE SLED15: evince / evince-devel / evince-lang / evince-plugin-djvudocument / etc (SUSE-SU-2026:3512-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	Local	medium
329530	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-63729	Nessus	Misc.	Local	medium

Detections

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CVE-2026-63729

medium

Tenable Plugins

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium