1. A method of handling access violations in a network device, the method comprising: setting, by at least one processor, a forwarding index field in a specific entry of an access control list (ACL) to reference a specific forwarding table entry (FTE), the specific FTE being the only FTE associated with reporting access violations; setting, by the at least one processor, a next destination field in the specific FTE to indicate a copy-to-host processor operation; and responsive to a timeout on a timer associated with reporting access violations, setting, by the at least one processor, the next destination field in the specific FTE to indicate a drop operation.