A malicious sticker capable of causing persistent crashes on both smartphones and desktop computers has begun circulating on Telegram. Outwardly, the “sticker of death” looks like a simple orange circle, and a user does not even need to click on it to trigger the crash.
The file contains instructions to render a star with a vast number of points. When processing this object, Telegram attempts to display the image, overloads the app, and crashes. Upon restarting, the cycle may repeat if the problematic sticker remains in one of the open chats.
The file itself is only a few hundred bytes in size. The crash is reportedly caused not by the file’s size, but by the complexity of the rendering command embedded in the image.
Baza reports that the issue affects Telegram versions for iOS, Android, and desktop. Normal functionality can be restored by deleting the message containing the problematic sticker via the Telegram web version.
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