SIGABRT is commonly used by libc and other libraries to abort the program in case of critical errors. For example, glibc sends an SIGABRT in case of a detected double-free or other heap corruptions.
Also, most assert implementations make use of SIGABRT in case of a failed assert.
Furthermore, SIGABRT can be sent from any other process like any other signal. Of course, the sending process needs to run as same user or root.
        