diff --git a/vmhost/contexts/runtime.go b/vmhost/contexts/runtime.go
index c55e2452..1ec571aa 100644
--- a/vmhost/contexts/runtime.go
+++ b/vmhost/contexts/runtime.go
@@ -1086,10 +1086,13 @@ func (context *runtimeContext) MemLoad(offset int32, length int32) ([]byte, erro
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("mem load: %w", vmhost.ErrNegativeLength)
 	}
 
-	result := make([]byte, length)
+	var result []byte
+
 	if isRequestedEndTooLarge {
+		result = make([]byte, memoryLength-uint32(offset))
 		copy(result, memoryView[offset:])
 	} else {
+		result = make([]byte, requestedEnd-offset)
 		copy(result, memoryView[offset:requestedEnd])
 	}
 
diff --git a/vmhost/contexts/runtime_test.go b/vmhost/contexts/runtime_test.go
index 581c0574..0e48a34b 100644
--- a/vmhost/contexts/runtime_test.go
+++ b/vmhost/contexts/runtime_test.go
@@ -638,7 +638,7 @@ func TestRuntimeContext_MemLoadCases(t *testing.T) {
 	length = 9
 	memContents, err = runtimeContext.MemLoad(offset, length)
 	require.Nil(t, err)
-	require.Equal(t, []byte{'e', 's', 't', ' ', 'd', 'a', 't', 'a', 0}, memContents)
+	require.Equal(t, []byte{'e', 's', 't', ' ', 'd', 'a', 't', 'a'}, memContents)
 
 	// Zero length
 	offset = int32(memory.Length() - 8)