open() on /dev/hpet causing VM reboot

head -n0 /dev/hpet (should do open() without reading)  causing xenserver VM reboot.

i can reproduce this on Centos 7.4 VM on XS7.0 and XS7.2 but not on vSphere 6.5

uname -a
Linux backupvm3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Sep 12 22:26:13 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS Linux release 7.4.1708 (Core)

Not sure if it`s a guest-OS or hypervisor issue, though...

Found via:  https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/issues/3159