But it doesn't guarantee that passwords will be compromised, unless it's on a Windows machine. Yes, certain things can be done to mitigate the damage -- if they're done. Until then, you're relying on a level of password security that UNIX deprecated years ago because it wasn't considered secure enough anymore.
As you supposedly know, security is the sum total of everything you do to secure a system or a network. Any one thing might sound insignificant, but it all adds up. Having passwords that are not easily cracked is one of them, and Microsoft with its lax approach to security did not see fit to implement this one simple thing that everybody else knew about long ago.
Wow guarantee. Sounds like I'm going to owe you your yearly salary. Should be an easy bet for you to take. Where would you like me to mail the hard drive to. Better yet, I'll even take the hashes off for you and email you the hash.
So the rules of the bet.
I send you a hash table of Windows passwords from my system. You get 15 days to crack every single password on the system (it won't be more than 100 hashes). If you fail I win--you pay me one year of your salarly. If you succeed you win--I pay you one year of your salary. If you can't crack any passwords I win double your salary. You provide me a linux hash table of equal # of hashes. If I crack any of the passwords I win double your salary.
Your salary is determined based you last years income tax statements.