After extensive investigation:
it was discovered that
/run/media/username/installed_iso/root/etc/chrony.conf
is getting updated during or immediately after the dd which writes installed_iso (which is an installed and functional Fedora 44 image, or potentially the installer ISO itself).
This is bad because it prevents the user from verifying that the ISO has written correctly. That, in turn, is essential for obvious security reasons. (Did the media get written with the executable code which I wanted to be written to it? And therefore can I rely upon it to uphold certain security guarantees?)
As to chrony.conf, it’s from the network time protocol (NTP) utility made by chrony-project.org
Perhaps I should alert them but I don’t think they’re to blame for this. The question is actually: what agent is launching what process which updates chrony.conf, and how can we prevent it from crapping on newborn file systems (or, who knows, any file system any time it feels like it)?
“ps -aux” didn’t return any “chron” anything or any “ntp” anything, and AI was equally unhelpful, hence my question to the forum here.