Rocky Linux 9 Minimal

Option A: Azure Portal

• Go to the Azure Marketplace and search for "Rocky Linux 9 Minimal SecureAnyCloud".
• Select the image and choose Create.
• Configure the basics:
• Subscription: Select your Azure subscription
• Resource Group: Create new or select existing
• Virtual Machine Name: Enter a name for your VM
• Region: Select your preferred Azure region
• Size: Standard_B2s recommended
• Under Administrator Account, select SSH public key and enter your key.
• Under Inbound Port Rules, allow SSH (port 22).
• Choose Review + Create, then Create.

Option B: Azure CLI

az vm image terms accept --urn sac1647283583153:rocky-9-minimal:default:latest
az vm create \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name my-rocky-9-minimal-vm \
  --image sac1647283583153:rocky-9-minimal:default:latest \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --public-ip-sku Standard

Run these on your own workstation, not on the VM. Find the public IP, then connect:

az vm show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name my-rocky-9-minimal-vm --show-details --query publicIps -o tsv ssh azureuser@<vm-ip>

There is no password to enter. If SSH asks for one, your client is not offering the key you supplied when you created the VM.

Check the Rocky Linux release and package count:

cat /etc/rocky-release grep -E '^(NAME|VERSION|ID|PLATFORM_ID)=' /etc/os-release uname -rm rpm -qa | wc -l

Expected output:

Rocky Linux release 9.8 (Blue Onyx) NAME="Rocky Linux" VERSION="9.8 (Blue Onyx)" ID="rocky" PLATFORM_ID="platform:el9" 5.14.0-687.36.1.el9_8.x86_64 x86_64 419

This listing moves forward with the Rocky Linux 9 stream. It ships whichever 9.x point release is current when the image is built. It is not pinned to a single minor release like the SecureAnyCloud Rocky Linux 9.8 image.

The image is fully updated at build time. dnf check-update returns exit code 100 when updates are pending and 0 when none are:

sudo dnf check-update echo "check-update exit code: $?"

Confirm no reboot is outstanding. needs-restarting -r returns 0 when nothing requires a restart:

sudo dnf needs-restarting -r echo "needs-restarting exit code: $?"

List the enabled repositories to confirm your update path is intact:

dnf repolist --enabled

Expected output:

repo id repo name appstream Rocky Linux 9 - AppStream baseos Rocky Linux 9 - BaseOS extras Rocky Linux 9 - Extras

CodeReady Builder (crb) is not enabled on this image. It carries developer and build-time packages that most server workloads do not need. Enable it yourself if you need it:

echo "crb state: $(dnf repolist --all 2>/dev/null | grep -c '^crb ')"

To turn it on, run sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb.

Package signatures are verified on every install: no repository on this image sets gpgcheck=0.

This image ships patched and keeps patching itself. dnf-automatic is installed and configured to apply updates, and its timer is enabled so it starts on every boot:

systemctl is-enabled dnf-automatic.timer
systemctl is-active dnf-automatic.timer grep -E '^(upgrade_type|download_updates|apply_updates)' /etc/dnf/automatic.conf

Expected output:

enabled active upgrade_type = default download_updates = yes apply_updates = yes

upgrade_type is deliberately set to default rather than security. The security-only mode resolves against errata metadata. Where that metadata is not published, a security-only policy silently resolves to nothing and applies no updates at all. Setting default applies every available update, so it cannot quietly do nothing.

To control the schedule yourself, disable the timer and patch on your own cadence:

echo "to take manual control: sudo systemctl disable --now dnf-automatic.timer"

To patch by hand at any time, run sudo dnf upgrade -y, then reboot with sudo systemctl reboot if a new kernel was installed.

Confirm that SELinux is enforcing, root is locked, SSH is key-only, and there is no swap:

getenforce grep -E '^[[:space:]]*SELINUX=' /etc/selinux/config
sudo passwd -S root
sudo sshd -T | grep -E '^(permitrootlogin|passwordauthentication|kbdinteractiveauthentication)' swapon --show

Expected output:

Enforcing SELINUX=enforcing root LK 2009-12-22 -1 -1 -1 -1 (Alternate authentication scheme in use.) permitrootlogin without-password passwordauthentication no kbdinteractiveauthentication no

The swapon --show command returns nothing. That is expected (see Step 7).

without-password is how OpenSSH reports the prohibit-password setting. Both names mean the same thing: root may not authenticate with a password.

The checks cover both the runtime SELinux mode and the persisted /etc/selinux/config value. A runtime setting that is not persisted would silently revert on your next reboot.

Confirm that the Azure Linux Agent, cloud-init and time synchronisation are healthy, and check your resources:

systemctl is-active waagent
systemctl is-enabled waagent cloud-init --version
systemctl is-active chronyd df -h / free -h

Note that free -h reports 0B of swap. That is deliberate. Azure manages swap on the ephemeral resource disk through waagent rather than on the OS disk, and a swap file baked into a Marketplace image fails certification. If your workload needs swap, configure it through waagent.

The Azure Network Security Group (NSG) controls inbound and outbound traffic. It is usually the only place you need to open a port.

This image is a Minimal build, so firewalld is not installed. That is deliberate. With no host firewall in the way, your NSG rules take effect exactly as written, and there is no second layer to keep in sync. Confirm what is listening before you open anything:

ss -tlnu

On a fresh machine, SSH on port 22 is the only externally bound listener. Chrony appears on 127.0.0.1:323, which is loopback only and not reachable from the network.

rpcbind is disabled on this image. The stock Rocky Linux cloud image enables it because nfs-utils depends on it, which leaves TCP and UDP port 111 open on every interface. NFSv4, the default in Rocky Linux 9, does not use rpcbind at all. This image therefore disables rpcbind and closes the port, while nfs-utils stays installed and fully working for NFSv4 mounts:

echo "rpcbind.socket: $(systemctl is-enabled rpcbind.socket 2>/dev/null || echo disabled)" rpm -q nfs-utils

If you need NFSv3, which does require the portmapper, turn rpcbind back on with one command:

echo "to re-enable NFSv3 support: sudo systemctl enable --now rpcbind.socket"

rpcbind is disabled rather than masked, so that command works without further steps.

If your policy also requires a host firewall, install and enable it yourself:

sudo dnf install -y firewalld
sudo systemctl enable --now firewalld
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Once firewalld is running, open each port in both the Azure NSG and firewalld. Traffic does not reach your service until both allow it.

This is the same Rocky Linux 9 base as the standard SecureAnyCloud images, with the packages that a headless Azure guest never uses removed. Confirm the trim for yourself:

rpm -qa cockpit-ws cockpit-bridge tuned sos plymouth linux-firmware echo "(no output above = every trimmed package is genuinely absent)"

Removed Why it is safe to remove on Azure

linux-firmware Firmware blobs for physical NICs, GPUs, wireless and storage controllers. An Azure guest's storage and network are the in-kernel Hyper-V synthetic drivers, which load no firmware at all. This is the single largest reduction.

cockpit-ws, cockpit-bridge The web admin console. This is a headless server image with no web UI.

tuned The tuning-profile daemon. Azure images use the platform defaults.

sos The Red Hat support-report collector. Install it yourself if you need it for a support case.

plymouth The graphical boot splash. There is no console to splash to on a cloud VM.

GeoIP data files A bundled dataset unused on a base OS image.

Nothing the platform needs is touched. systemd, NetworkManager, openssh-server, cloud-init, WALinuxAgent, dnf, sudo, chrony and dnf-automatic all ship exactly as on the standard image. Every removal above is verified on the image before it is captured.

AppStream carries the application packages. Search it, then install what you need:

dnf search nginx

The Rocky Linux 9 series still ships modules for some packages. AppStream can carry several versions of the same language or database as separate streams, so you can pick a version instead of taking the default.

dnf module list nginx

Expected output:

Rocky Linux 9 - AppStream Name Stream Profiles Summary nginx 1.22 common [d] nginx webserver nginx 1.24 common [d] nginx webserver nginx 1.26 common [d] nginx webserver

Install a package and enable it in the usual way. For example, run sudo dnf install -y nginx, then sudo systemctl enable --now nginx.

To add another administrator, create the account with sudo adduser <name>. Add it to the wheel group with sudo usermod -aG wheel <name>, then copy your public key into /home/<name>/.ssh/authorized_keys with mode 600 and the .ssh directory mode 700, owned by that user. The image ships with no human accounts, so azureuser is the only login until you add one:

getent group wheel

Option A: AWS Marketplace console

• Open the SecureAnyCloud Rocky Linux listing on AWS Marketplace and choose View purchase options, then Subscribe. One subscription covers every version in the listing.
• Once the subscription is active, choose Launch your software.
• Choose One-click launch from AWS Marketplace (or Launch from EC2 Console for full control), then in Version choose Rocky Linux 9 Minimal - YYYY-MM-DD (the date is when the version was added) and your Region.
• Instance type: m5.large is recommended; any current x86_64 type works. The software charge is $0.04 per vCPU per hour.
• Key pair: choose your EC2 key pair. It is the only way in. RSA and ED25519 keys both work.
• Security group: allow inbound TCP 22 from your own IP address or network only.
• Storage: the root volume is 11 GiB gp3 by default. Choose a larger size if you need one; cloud-init grows the root partition and filesystem to fill it on first boot.
• Metadata: leave the defaults. The image already requires IMDSv2. Then choose Launch.

Option B: AWS CLI

Run this on your own workstation. Replace the AMI ID with the one shown for your Region on the Marketplace launch page, and the key pair, security group and subnet with your own. The root device of this AMI is /dev/sda1:

aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --instance-type m5.large \
  --key-name my-key-pair \
  --security-group-ids sg-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --subnet-id subnet-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --block-device-mappings 'DeviceName=/dev/sda1,Ebs={VolumeSize=20,VolumeType=gp3}' \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=rocky-linux-9-minimal}]'

You do not need --metadata-options: the AMI already makes IMDSv2 required.

From your workstation, connect as rocky with the key pair you chose:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/my-key-pair.pem rocky@<public-ip>

There is no password to enter. If SSH asks for one, or says Too many authentication failures, see Troubleshooting below.

You can also connect without opening port 22 at all through AWS Systems Manager Session Manager, if the instance has an instance profile that allows Systems Manager. The agent is installed and running on this image.

cat /etc/rocky-release grep -E '^(NAME|VERSION|ID|VERSION_ID|PLATFORM_ID|PRETTY_NAME)=' /etc/os-release uname -srm

Expected output:

Rocky Linux release 9.8 (Blue Onyx) NAME="Rocky Linux" VERSION="9.8 (Blue Onyx)" ID="rocky" VERSION_ID="9.8" PLATFORM_ID="platform:el9" PRETTY_NAME="Rocky Linux 9.8 (Blue Onyx)" Linux 5.14.0-687.58.1.el9_8.x86_64 x86_64

This version follows Rocky Linux 9: it receives every Rocky Linux 9 minor release (9.8 at build time) through normal dnf updates. Your kernel version may be newer if updates have installed since this image was built.

The image lists exactly what was removed, and anything that a removal would have taken with it is kept and listed instead:

cat /usr/share/doc/sac/minimal-manifest.txt rpm -qa | wc -l

Expected output:

Minimal version: packages 435 -> 418 Removed: geolite2-city geolite2-country cockpit-ws cockpit-system Kept (a removal would have taken a protected package, or it failed): 430

The trim takes the package count from 435 to 418, including the dependencies that left with those four packages (the Cockpit web console and the GeoLite2 location databases). Nothing had to be kept back. The base image is already small, so the rest of the candidate list (wireless and sound firmware, Plymouth, sos, tuned) was never installed. After the trim, the CIS remediation adds the tools it needs (OpenSCAP, AIDE and their libraries); on this build that nets out at twelve more, so a new instance has 430 packages. The count on your instance moves by a few as kernels and updates install.

Anything removed is one sudo dnf install away from the standard Rocky Linux repositories.

The evaluation the build ran after its reboot ships on the image:

ls -lh /usr/share/doc/sac/ python3 -c "import json; s=json.load(open('/usr/share/doc/sac/cis-l1-summary.json')); print('profile: ', s['profileLabel'], '(SCAP Security Guide', s['ssgVersion'] + ')'); print('scored rules: ', s['scored'], ' pass:', s['pass'], ' fail:', s['fail'], ' rate:', str(s['ratePct']) + '%'); print('waived: ', s['waived'], ' not applicable:', s['notapplicable']); print('evaluated at: ', s['evaluatedAt'])"

Expected output:

total 39M -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 37M Oct 20 19:52 cis-l1-arf.xml -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2.3M Oct 20 19:52 cis-l1-report.html -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1.3K Oct 20 19:52 cis-l1-summary.json -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1.7K Oct 20 19:52 cis-l1-tailoring.xml -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2.3K Oct 20 19:52 cis-l1-waivers.txt -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 180 Oct 20 19:48 minimal-manifest.txt -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1.6K Oct 20 19:48 scap-security-guide-LICENSE.txt profile: CIS Level 1 Server (SCAP Security Guide 0.1.82) scored rules: 256 pass: 255 fail: 1 rate: 99.6% waived: 6 not applicable: 33 evaluated at: 2026-10-20T19:52:36Z

• cis-l1-report.html is the full OpenSCAP report, rule by rule. Copy it to your workstation and open it in a browser.
• cis-l1-arf.xml is the same evaluation in the machine-readable ARF format, for compliance tooling.
• cis-l1-tailoring.xml is the exact tailoring used, so you can re-run the same evaluation (Step 6).
• The pass rate is pass / (pass + fail + error + unknown). Rules that are not applicable to this machine, not selected, or waived are not counted.

To copy the report to your workstation, run this on the workstation:

scp -i ~/.ssh/my-key-pair.pem rocky@<public-ip>:/usr/share/doc/sac/cis-l1-report.html .

The six waived rules

grep -v '^#' /usr/share/doc/sac/cis-l1-waivers.txt | cut -f1,2

Expected output:

partition_for_tmp [single-volume-partitions] grub2_password [serial-console-and-boot] ensure_root_password_configured [serial-console-and-boot] accounts_maximum_age_login_defs [key-only-account-aging] account_disable_post_pw_expiration [key-only-account-aging] sshd_limit_user_access [ssh-access-list]

The full reason for each is the third column of the same file. In short:

• Separate /tmp partition: this version boots from one EBS root volume. (The LVM versions of this listing provide separate volumes for /tmp, /var, /var/log, /var/log/audit, /var/tmp and /home.)
• Boot loader and root passwords: a GRUB or root password would have to be baked into the image, giving every instance the same secret. Root stays locked with no password. Set your own if you need serial console access (see Step 11).
• Password ageing defaults: the accounts cloud-init creates are key-only. An ageing limit would expire them and lock the SSH key out. Accounts that do have a password are still aged.
• SSH AllowUsers/AllowGroups: a list fixed at build time would refuse accounts you create later. Your security group restricts who can reach port 22.

The rule that does not pass

python3 -c "import json; [print(r) for r in json.load(open('/usr/share/doc/sac/cis-l1-summary.json'))['failingRules']]"

Expected output:

ensure_journald_and_rsyslog_not_active_together

journald and rsyslog together. The benchmark wants one logging system, not both. Rocky Linux runs journald and rsyslog together by default: journald keeps the structured system journal (persistent, in /var/log/journal), and rsyslog writes the traditional text logs (/var/log/messages, /var/log/secure, /var/log/cron) that many log shippers and audit procedures read. The image keeps both so neither kind of tooling loses its logs. If you standardise on one, for example the journal only, run sudo systemctl disable --now rsyslog on your instance and re-run Step 6.

You can repeat the evaluation at any time with the same content and tailoring. It takes about a minute:

sudo oscap xccdf eval \
  --tailoring-file /usr/share/doc/sac/cis-l1-tailoring.xml \
  --profile xccdf_co.sac_profile_cis-l1_ec2_single \
  --results /tmp/cis-check-results.xml --report /tmp/cis-check-report.html \
  /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rl9-ds.xml > /tmp/cis-check.log 2>&1 echo "oscap exit code: $? (2 = at least one rule did not pass)"
sudo python3 -c "import re,collections; c=collections.Counter(re.findall(r'<result>(\w+)</result>', open('/tmp/cis-check-results.xml').read())); s=sum(c[k] for k in ('pass','fail','error','unknown')); print(dict(sorted(c.items()))); print('pass rate: %.1f%%' % (100.0*c['pass']/s))"

Expected output:

oscap exit code: 2 (2 = at least one rule did not pass) {'fail': 1, 'notapplicable': 33, 'notselected': 1251, 'pass': 255} pass rate: 99.6%

Your own report is at /tmp/cis-check-report.html. The content file is ssg-rl9-ds.xml, the Rocky Linux 9 data stream; the RHEL 9 data stream that the same package carries reports every rule as not applicable on Rocky Linux. As you install software and change settings, re-run this to see how your changes affect the result.

curl -s -o /dev/null -w 'IMDSv1 request without a token: HTTP %{http_code}\n' http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X PUT -H 'X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds: 60' http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token)
curl -s -H "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token: $TOKEN" -w '\n' http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/region

Expected output (your Region may differ):

IMDSv1 request without a token: HTTP 401 us-east-1

A request without a session token is refused with HTTP 401, and the same request with a token works. Scripts and SDKs on the instance must use IMDSv2; every current AWS SDK and the AWS CLI do this automatically.

sudo firewall-cmd --state sudo firewall-cmd --list-all sudo ss -tlnp

Expected output:

running public (active) target: default icmp-block-inversion: no interfaces: eth0 sources: services: dhcpv6-client ssh ports: protocols: forward: yes masquerade: no forward-ports: source-ports: icmp-blocks: rich rules: State Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address:Port Peer Address:PortProcess LISTEN 0 128 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* users:(("sshd",pid=907,fd=7)) LISTEN 0 128 [::]:22 [::]:* users:(("sshd",pid=907,fd=8))

• Only sshd listens, on port 22. Nothing else on the image opens a TCP port.
• The public zone allows ssh and dhcpv6-client (replies to the instance's IPv6 DHCP client, which is how an instance in an IPv6-enabled subnet gets its address). The Rocky Linux default cockpit service is removed from the zone; Cockpit is not installed.
• The loopback interface sits in firewalld's trusted zone, with rules that drop traffic claiming a loopback source from anywhere else (a CIS requirement).

Opening a port for your own service takes two steps: allow it in the instance's security group, and allow it in firewalld. For example, for a web server on 443, run on the instance:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https sudo firewall-cmd --reload

If a port is open in the security group but not in firewalld (or the other way round), the traffic will not arrive.

systemctl is-active chronyd amazon-ssm-agent chronyc -n sources

Expected output (the pool servers and timings vary):

active active MS Name/IP address Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample =============================================================================== ^- 96.245.170.99 2 6 377 35 -2282us[-2283us] +/- 31ms ^- 23.150.41.123 2 6 377 35 -453us[ -454us] +/- 25ms ^- 67.217.246.204 2 6 377 33 -16ms[ -16ms] +/- 87ms ^- 45.79.111.167 2 6 377 34 +486us[ +485us] +/- 69ms ^* 169.254.169.123 3 4 377 1 -26us[ -28us] +/- 665us

The ^* marks the source chrony is using: 169.254.169.123, the Amazon Time Sync Service. It is reachable from every instance without internet access, so time stays correct in a private subnet too. The public Rocky Linux pool servers are fallbacks.

The AWS Systems Manager agent is installed from Amazon's own package at its current release (3.3.5390.0 on this build). It is not in the Rocky Linux repositories, so dnf does not update it; Systems Manager can keep it current for you (the AWS-UpdateSSMAgent document, or the Auto update SSM Agent setting in Fleet Manager).

The image is fully patched at build time. Check what is pending now:

sudo dnf -q check-update --refresh echo "dnf check-update exit code: $? (0 = nothing to update, 100 = updates available)" grep -E '^(upgrade_type|apply_updates)' /etc/dnf/automatic.conf systemctl is-enabled dnf-automatic.timer uname -r

Expected output on an instance launched soon after the image was built (later launches list the updates released since, with exit code 100):

dnf check-update exit code: 0 (0 = nothing to update, 100 = updates available) upgrade_type = security apply_updates = yes enabled 5.14.0-687.58.1.el9_8.x86_64

dnf-automatic runs daily (06:00, with a random delay of up to an hour) and installs security updates automatically. To update everything now, run:

sudo dnf -y upgrade

Reboot if a new kernel was installed:

sudo systemctl reboot

getenforce
sudo passwd -S root
sudo sshd -T | grep -E '^(permitrootlogin|passwordauthentication|pubkeyauthentication|maxauthtries|clientaliveinterval|banner) ' cat /etc/issue.net

Expected output:

Enforcing root LK 2026-06-24 0 99999 7 -1 (Password locked.) maxauthtries 4 clientaliveinterval 300 permitrootlogin no pubkeyauthentication yes passwordauthentication no banner /etc/issue.net Authorized users only. All activity may be monitored and reported.

• Enforcing means SELinux is on and enforcing the targeted policy. Keep it on; if your own software is denied, check sudo ausearch -m avc -ts recent rather than disabling SELinux.
• LK means the root account is locked.
• maxauthtries 4 and clientaliveinterval 300 come from the CIS profile: SSH allows four authentication attempts per connection and checks idle sessions every five minutes.
• The banner text is shown before login.

EC2 Serial Console and recovery. No account on this image has a password, so the serial console cannot log in until you set one. If you want serial console access, set a password for your own user on your running instance (the password is yours and is not on the image):

sudo passwd rocky

df -hT /
sudo grep -E 'cc_growpart.*(resized|NOCHANGE)' /var/log/cloud-init.log | tail -1 swapon --noheadings --show | wc -l sudo grep -h aide /etc/crontab

Expected output with the default 11 GiB root volume (on a larger volume, Size is larger and the cloud-init line says resized):

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p4 xfs 9.9G 1.5G 8.5G 15% / 2026-10-20 20:20:45,169 - cc_growpart.py[DEBUG]: '/' NOCHANGE: no change necessary (/dev/nvme0n1, 4) 0 05 4 * * * root /usr/sbin/aide --check

• Disk layout. The root filesystem is XFS on partition 4 of the root volume; /boot (XFS) and /boot/efi are separate small partitions.
• Disk growth. cloud-init grows the root partition and filesystem to the volume size on first boot. To grow later, increase the EBS volume size in the console or with aws ec2 modify-volume, then run sudo growpart /dev/nvme0n1 4 && sudo xfs_growfs / (or reboot).
• Swap. The image has no swap. Add a swap file yourself if your workload needs one.
• AIDE. The file integrity database is built from the image's own files, and the CIS profile schedules aide --check daily at 04:05 from /etc/crontab.

The instance uses the standard Rocky Linux 9 repositories (BaseOS, AppStream and Extras):

sudo dnf -q list --available nginx

Expected output (the version changes over time):

Available Packages nginx.x86_64 2:1.20.1-28.el9_8.6.rocky.0.1 appstream

Install and start software in the usual way, for example sudo dnf -y install nginx then sudo systemctl enable --now nginx, and open its port in the security group and firewalld (Step 8). The AWS CLI is not on the image; install the current version from AWS (the AWS CLI install guide) if you need it.

To add another administrator, create the account, add it to the wheel group and give it an SSH key:

sudo useradd -m -G wheel alice
sudo install -d -m 700 -o alice -g alice /home/alice/.ssh echo "ssh-ed25519 AAAA... alice@laptop" | sudo tee /home/alice/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown alice:alice /home/alice/.ssh/authorized_keys && sudo chmod 600 /home/alice/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo restorecon -R /home/alice/.ssh

Because SSH is key-only, a new account needs its key in authorized_keys (and restorecon gives the file the SELinux label sshd expects). The new account has no password, so sudo cannot authenticate it until you give it one with sudo passwd alice. SSH stays key-only; the password is used by sudo. (Password-free sudo is granted only to rocky, created by cloud-init, and to ssm-user, the account the Systems Manager agent creates the first time you open a Session Manager session.)