.NET Framework Security

The Interaction of App Domains with Stack Walks

In the interests of clarity, the stack walk algorithm presented thus far has been simplified somewhat. There is one further factor that can alter the outcome of a stack walk—the interaction of the app domain(s) in which the current thread is executing.

An app domain (short for application domain) can be thought of as a process within a process. Multiple app domains can exist within a single Win32 process and provide the same sort of separation between managed tasks that processes provide between unmanaged tasks. Each app domain is isolated from the others (they load their own set of assemblies and cross-domain communication requires the use of the remoting subsystem). This segregation means that ...