1. A method of automating generation of a vendor-provided manifest that governs execution of a software object distributed by the vendor, the method comprising: creating, via a computer, a manifest configuration file (MCF) that provides a description of requirements to be embodied in the vendor-provided manifest, the description including an identity of a key file that contains a cryptographic key, wherein providing said identity of the key file eliminates the need to manually insert cryptographic key data into the vendor-provided manifest; parsing the MCF to create a generic representation containing substance specified in the MCF; and providing the generic representation to a manifest generation tool that reads the generic representation, retrieves said cryptographic key to obtain cryptographic key data for insertion into the vendor-provided manifest, and generates the vendor-provided manifest in an eXtensible Rights Markup Language (XRML) format based on the requirements, said manifest comprising one or more rules imposed by the vendor to enable a security component to impose a permeable barrier for ensuring integrity of an address space that is used in a computer for executing the software object, the one or more rules incorporating a list of acceptable and unacceptable modules, wherein the acceptable modules are permitted to pass through the permeable barrier and are executed in the address space of the computer and the unacceptable modules are prevented from passing through the permeable barrier and unconditionally barred from being executed in the address space of the computer.