A Favicon bug lets Chrome and Firefox download huge favicon files to the point they crash the browser:
Andrea De Pasquale posted a tweet saying "Weird 64MB favicon.ico turning out to be a TAR backup of the whole WP site, downloaded by every browser passing by."
This creepy bug makes Chrome and Firefox download the huge favicon files to the point till they crash the browser. The silliest part is that the users are not at all aware of this download as it is all done in the background and who is truly to be blamed for this.
[...] Technically, the existence of this bug is no surprise, as there is no rule of standard anywhere which states that the favicon files have to be below a specified limit. As a matter of fact, the favicon files need not have to be .ico files. A lot of GIF, PNG or JPEG files are used with popular websites, and there are no limitations linked to the file's extension.
(Score: 1) by ledow on Wednesday June 24 2015, @02:04PM
If your favicon is over 32Kb, we just don't display it.
See how long it takes for everyone to shrink their favicons back to a sensible size or feel the wrath of users who "only get the little default icon on your website, but not your competitor".