The Web PKI uses certificate transparency, so we’ll have a definitive answer about whether this is/was exploited soon.

(But in any case, CT ensures that it can’t be “quiet.”)

I admittedly don't know much about how CAs work but why would a state actor care about such an exploit? Wouldn't they just ask any local cert issuer and receive a "legitimate" cert?

organized crime is generally as or more capable these days. they have bigger budgets than most nation states.

A grumpy state actor today.

Nope. You can find this from the Chrome Root Program.

> Because no TLS certificates chaining to these six intermediate CAs were logged to CT prior to our CRLSet block on October 17, no fraudulent certificates issued by these CAs could have been trusted by default in Chrome or other CT-enforcing browsers.