diff --git a/src/hyperlight_host/examples/map-file-cow-test/main.rs b/src/hyperlight_host/examples/map-file-cow-test/main.rs
index 446420e0d..5d4bcdf86 100644
--- a/src/hyperlight_host/examples/map-file-cow-test/main.rs
+++ b/src/hyperlight_host/examples/map-file-cow-test/main.rs
@@ -18,9 +18,12 @@ limitations under the License.
 // section mapping via MapViewOfFileNuma2 on Windows (the surrogate process
 // must be able to map the file-backed section).
 //
-// Before the NULL DACL fix, this fails on Windows with:
+// Covers both a page-aligned file and an intentionally unaligned file.
+// Before fix: the unaligned case fails on Windows with
 //   HyperlightVmError(MapRegion(MapMemory(SurrogateProcess(
 //     "MapViewOfFileNuma2 failed: ... Access is denied."))))
+// because the file-backed section has max_size == file_size (< the
+// page-aligned host_size the surrogate requests).
 //
 // Run:
 //   cargo run --release --example map-file-cow-test
@@ -31,32 +34,48 @@ use std::path::Path;
 use hyperlight_host::sandbox::SandboxConfiguration;
 use hyperlight_host::{MultiUseSandbox, UninitializedSandbox};
 
-fn main() -> hyperlight_host::Result<()> {
+fn run_once(test_file: &Path, label: &str) -> hyperlight_host::Result<()> {
     let mut config = SandboxConfiguration::default();
     config.set_heap_size(4 * 1024 * 1024);
     config.set_scratch_size(64 * 1024 * 1024);
 
-    // Create a test file to map (simulating an initrd).
-    let test_file = std::env::temp_dir().join("hl_map_file_cow_test.bin");
-    std::fs::write(&test_file, vec![0xABu8; 8192]).unwrap();
-
     let mut usbox = UninitializedSandbox::new(
         hyperlight_host::GuestBinary::FilePath(
             hyperlight_testing::simple_guest_as_string().unwrap(),
         ),
         Some(config),
     )?;
-    eprintln!("[test] UninitializedSandbox::new OK");
+    eprintln!("[{label}] UninitializedSandbox::new OK");
 
-    usbox.map_file_cow(Path::new(&test_file), 0xC000_0000, Some("test"))?;
-    eprintln!("[test] map_file_cow OK");
+    usbox.map_file_cow(test_file, 0xC000_0000, Some(label))?;
+    eprintln!(
+        "[{label}] map_file_cow OK ({} bytes)",
+        std::fs::metadata(test_file)?.len()
+    );
 
     let mut mu: MultiUseSandbox = usbox.evolve()?;
-    eprintln!("[test] evolve OK");
+    eprintln!("[{label}] evolve OK");
+
+    let result: String = mu.call("Echo", format!("{label}: map_file_cow works!"))?;
+    eprintln!("[{label}] guest returned: {result}");
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+fn main() -> hyperlight_host::Result<()> {
+    let aligned = std::env::temp_dir().join("hl_map_file_cow_aligned.bin");
+    let unaligned = std::env::temp_dir().join("hl_map_file_cow_unaligned.bin");
+
+    // 2 full pages.
+    std::fs::write(&aligned, vec![0xABu8; 8192]).unwrap();
+    // Deliberately unaligned: not a multiple of 4 KiB. Must succeed
+    // (Windows: requires the surrogate to map "to end of section" rather
+    // than the caller's page-aligned host_size).
+    std::fs::write(&unaligned, vec![0xCDu8; 8193]).unwrap();
 
-    let result: String = mu.call("Echo", "map_file_cow works!".to_string())?;
-    eprintln!("[test] guest returned: {result}");
+    run_once(&aligned, "aligned")?;
+    run_once(&unaligned, "unaligned")?;
 
-    let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&test_file);
+    let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&aligned);
+    let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&unaligned);
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/src/hyperlight_host/src/hypervisor/surrogate_process.rs b/src/hyperlight_host/src/hypervisor/surrogate_process.rs
index 6c439dbf6..481aa44e8 100644
--- a/src/hyperlight_host/src/hypervisor/surrogate_process.rs
+++ b/src/hyperlight_host/src/hypervisor/surrogate_process.rs
@@ -103,13 +103,28 @@ impl SurrogateProcess {
                 // Use MapViewOfFile2 to map memory into the surrogate process, the MapViewOfFile2 API is implemented in as an inline function in a windows header file
                 // (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/memoryapi/nf-memoryapi-mapviewoffile2#remarks) so we use the same API it uses in the header file here instead of
                 // MapViewOfFile2 which does not exist in the rust crate (see https://github.com/microsoft/windows-rs/issues/2595)
+                //
+                // For ReadOnlyFile mappings backed by a file-sized section
+                // (max_size == file_size, potentially not page-aligned),
+                // passing the caller's page-aligned `host_size` would exceed
+                // the section size and fail with ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED. Pass 0
+                // instead to request "map to end of section": Windows returns
+                // a page-aligned view and zero-fills the tail of the final
+                // page, matching POSIX mmap semantics. For SandboxMemory
+                // sections the section size is already page-aligned and set
+                // by the caller, so pass host_size explicitly (guard-page
+                // bookkeeping below depends on knowing the exact extent).
+                let bytes_to_map = match mapping {
+                    SurrogateMapping::SandboxMemory => host_size,
+                    SurrogateMapping::ReadOnlyFile => 0,
+                };
                 let surrogate_base = unsafe {
                     MapViewOfFileNuma2(
                         handle.into(),
                         self.process_handle.into(),
                         0,
                         None,
-                        host_size,
+                        bytes_to_map,
                         0,
                         page_protection.0,
                         NUMA_NO_PREFERRED_NODE,