How to handle AccessViolationException

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EDIT (3/17/2021)

Disclaimer: This answer was written in 2011 and references the original .NET Framework 4.0 implementation, NOT the open-source implementation of .NET.

In .NET 4.0, the runtime handles certain exceptions raised as Windows Structured Error Handling (SEH) errors as indicators of Corrupted State. These Corrupted State Exceptions (CSE) are not allowed to be caught by your standard managed code. I won’t get into the why’s or how’s here. Read this article about CSE’s in the .NET 4.0 Framework:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419661.aspx#id0070035

But there is hope. There are a few ways to get around this:

  1. Recompile as a .NET 3.5 assembly and run it in .NET 4.0.

  2. Add a line to your application’s config file under the configuration/runtime element:
    <legacyCorruptedStateExceptionsPolicy enabled="true|false"/>

  3. Decorate the methods you want to catch these exceptions in with the HandleProcessCorruptedStateExceptions attribute. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419661.aspx#id0070035 for details.

EDIT

Previously, I referenced a forum post for additional details. But since Microsoft Connect has been retired, here are the additional details in case you’re interested:

From Gaurav Khanna, a developer from the Microsoft CLR Team

This behaviour is by design due to a feature of CLR 4.0 called Corrupted State Exceptions. Simply put, managed code shouldnt make an attempt to catch exceptions that indicate corrupted process state and AV is one of them.

He then goes on to reference the documentation on the HandleProcessCorruptedStateExceptionsAttribute and the above article. Suffice to say, it’s definitely worth a read if you’re considering catching these types of exceptions.

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