Acrobat Crashes on Exit – Exception Code 0xc0000409 in ntdll.dll (Plugin-Related)

[Satish30521574c82h]

Hi everyone,

I’m encountering a crash in Acrobat Pro DC (64-bit, version 25.1.20474.0) after closing the application when my custom plugin is loaded. The crash appears only after Acrobat exits, and I suspect it's related to improper plugin cleanup or delayed UI callbacks.

Crash Details (Event Viewer):

Faulting application name: Acrobat.exe
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll
Exception code: 0xc0000409 (Stack buffer overrun)
Fault offset: 0x00000000000a5db0
Faulting process id: 0x593C
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Application path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe

Setup:

• Plugin tech: C++, Acrobat SDK, wxWidgets for UI (wxDialog, wxMessageBox, etc.)

• Event handling: Using BEGIN_EVENT_TABLE and EVT_BUTTON macros

• Plugin registration: Done via PISetupSDK, and unloading via PIUnloadSDK

• Debug tools used: Application Verifier, Event Viewer

Observations:

• Crash happens only on Acrobat exit, not during active plugin usage

• Application Verifier flags show “Invalid call guard transfer”, possibly due to:

  • Message/events firing after plugin code is unloaded

  • UI objects not destroyed before Acrobat shutdown

  • Thread-local storage or static objects lingering too late

Questions:

1. Has anyone faced 0xc0000409 or “Invalid call guard transfer” errors in Acrobat plugin development?

2. Are there Acrobat SDK-specific guidelines for safe plugin cleanup on shutdown, especially for GUI elements?

3. Is there a correct way to defer or disable late event handlers before Acrobat exits?

If needed, I can share plugin source snippets or crash dumps. Any advice from the community or Adobe SDK engineers would be a huge help.

Thanks in advance,
Vinay P.

[Thom Parker]

I've had crashes on Acrobat closing, and it was becuase of cleanup issues, but never seen this particular error.  I use MFC for the UI.  Seems like the wxWidgets could be the issue. 

[Satish30521574c82h]

Thanks Thom,

That’s helpful to know. I wanted to follow up with more details — I’ve been debugging this crash using Application Verifier and found that even the official wxPlugin sample provided by Adobe triggers the same issue on Acrobat close when Application Verifier is enabled.

[Thom Parker]

Are you sure that Application Verifier is not the issue?  I'll try it with one of my plugins and see if there is a problem.

[Satish30521574c82h]

I did suspect Application Verifier initially. So I removed Acrobat from Application Verifier and tested again. However, even after fully removing it, the same crash still occurs on Acrobat close when the wxPlugin sample is unloaded.