An access violation is a crash condition that occurs when a process tries to read, write, or execute memory it is not permitted to use. On Windows, this often appears as error code 0xc0000005, also known as STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION. It usually points to an invalid pointer, corrupted state, or a bug in application logic rather than a deliberate attack.
In cyber security, access violations matter because they can expose unstable code in security tools, browsers, document readers, and malware alike. Defenders use crash reports, memory dumps, and exception codes to distinguish a simple software defect from exploit activity. Attackers may also trigger access violations while probing for memory corruption vulnerabilities, such as use-after-free or buffer errors, because those bugs can sometimes lead to code execution. A single access violation is not proof of compromise, but repeated or suspicious crashes can be an important signal during incident response and patch validation.