Xcode ToolsMidMCQ
What is the Address Sanitizer?
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Explanation & Code
Answer: Address Sanitizer (ASan) is a runtime tool that detects memory corruption bugs — buffer overflows, use-after-free, and invalid memory access — that would otherwise cause mysterious crashes.
How to enable:
- Edit Scheme → Run → Diagnostics
- Enable Address Sanitizer
- Optionally enable Undefined Behavior Sanitizer too
What it catches:
- Buffer overflow (reading/writing past array bounds)
- Use-after-free (accessing deallocated memory)
- Use-after-return (returning pointer to stack variable)
- Double-free
Example output:
==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: heap-buffer-overflow
READ of size 4 at 0x... thread T0
#0 MyApp in processData() MyClass.swift:47
Note: ASan adds significant runtime overhead (~2x slower, ~3x more memory) — only enable it when hunting bugs, not for regular development.
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