CA PAM client showing outsized items
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CA PAM client showing outsized items

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Article ID: 251640

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Updated On:

Products

CA Privileged Access Manager (PAM)

Issue/Introduction

Sometimes connecting to PAM via CA PAM Client results in dashboard not showing completely the items it should: menus spawn beyond the limit of the CA PAM Client Window, some test is not displayed and some checkboxes are partially displayed or falling outside the field of vision and unable to scroll window to them. This is not happening when using the web browser.

An example is show below

 

We can see here that part of the dashboard goes beyond the limits of the screen, so it would not be possible to, for instance, view a password if such an option was defined for one of the endpoints in the dashboard

Environment

CA PAM version 4.0, possibly other versions

Cause

This is likely caused by the jxbrowser (the embedded browser in the CA PAM Client) using a scale factor beyond 1.0. That is: jxbrowser is showing the items scaled up from their normal sizes. Since CA PAM Client does not have the possibility of reshaping the windows or having scroll bars, that will result in an incomplete display or in items showing outside its limits

A possible way to determine is this is the cause for the behaviour observed is to set CA PAM Client in debug (see for instance: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=100445 for how to setting debug) and see if the scale_factor is greater than 1.

If the problem is occurring, lines similar to the following will be displayed in the debug logs for the CA PAM Client

2022-09-27 18:54:54 INFO  - 18:54:54.158 DEBUG < [68:56]: teamdev.browsercore.gpu.Gpu.OnPaint [ stream_data [ stage_case: MESSAGE status: OK request: [ id: 1 data [ target { uuid: "175e2b99-f214-4970-a4dd-f2da41894534" } request { paint_request { view_size { width: 885 height: 989 } dirty_rect { origin { } size { width: 885 height: 989 } } scale_factor: 1.1 memory_id { value: 2 } } } ]]     syserr [Gpu Thread: 62935]

Now jxbrowser is taking the scaling factor out of what scaling the Windows Display of the device where the problem is happening is using.

So if Display scaling has been modified for whatever reason, this issue may appear

Resolution

First verify what scaling Windows has in the system experiencing the issue. To do so, right-click anywhere in the desktop of the system having the problem and choose "Display Settings" and therein "Scale and Layout"

Go into "Advanced Settings" in this section to see if any scaling has been set. 

Following window should be shown

we see here that according to Windows no scaling factor has been set. So this is good.

However we may find the following in the main Display screen

 

 

That is, despite not having really a scale factor, Windows still thinks there is such a setting, and jxbrowser erroneously takes that as a scale factor beyond 1. The reason for this behaviour is still investigated, but for the time being just clicking in the option "Turn off custom scaling and log out", then logging out and in into the system will allow the CA PAM Client to recover its correct scaling.

Note: Modifying the scaling for a Display in Windows may be a bit tricky and it may cause blurred applications, oversized icons or even prevent a successful login to Windows if incorrectly done or not enough precautions are taken, so please use this solution with caution.