Application I use requires OpenSSL 0.9.8, which was already installed (0.9.8e to be specific) on my CentOS alongside 1.0.1e which unfortunately is used by default. I tried to change libssl.so.10 symbolic link to point to the older version like so:

[mckulpa@nuance-vm ~]$ ldd /usr/bin/openssl 
/usr/bin/openssl: /usr/lib64/libssl.so.10: no version information available (required by /usr/bin/openssl)
    linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fff2edff000)
    libssl.so.10 => /usr/lib64/libssl.so.10 (0x00007f664457c000)
    libgssapi_krb5.so.2 => /lib64/libgssapi_krb5.so.2 (0x0000003927600000)
    libkrb5.so.3 => /lib64/libkrb5.so.3 (0x0000003926200000)
    libcom_err.so.2 => /lib64/libcom_err.so.2 (0x0000003925a00000)
    libk5crypto.so.3 => /lib64/libk5crypto.so.3 (0x0000003926e00000)
    libcrypto.so.10 => /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.10 (0x0000003927200000)
    libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x000000391a600000)
    libz.so.1 => /lib64/libz.so.1 (0x000000391aa00000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x0000003919e00000)
    libcrypto.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.6 (0x00007f664421d000)
    libkrb5support.so.0 => /lib64/libkrb5support.so.0 (0x0000003925e00000)
    libkeyutils.so.1 => /lib64/libkeyutils.so.1 (0x0000003926a00000)
    libresolv.so.2 => /lib64/libresolv.so.2 (0x000000391be00000)
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x000000391a200000)
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000003919600000)
    libselinux.so.1 => /lib64/libselinux.so.1 (0x000000391b600000)
[mckulpa@nuance-vm ~]$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/libs:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
[mckulpa@nuance-vm ~]$ echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH 
/home/mckulpa/libs:/usr/local/Nuance/Recognizer_Service/amd64/lib:/usr/local/Nuance/OAM/x86/lib:/usr/local/Nuance/Common/x86/lib:/usr/local/Nuance/Common/amd64/lib
[mckulpa@nuance-vm ~]$ ldd /usr/bin/openssl 
/usr/bin/openssl: /home/mckulpa/libs/libssl.so.10: no version information available (required by /usr/bin/openssl)
    linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fff91dbc000)
    libssl.so.10 => /home/mckulpa/libs/libssl.so.10 (0x00007ffe1af50000)
    libgssapi_krb5.so.2 => /lib64/libgssapi_krb5.so.2 (0x0000003927600000)
    libkrb5.so.3 => /lib64/libkrb5.so.3 (0x0000003926200000)
    libcom_err.so.2 => /lib64/libcom_err.so.2 (0x0000003925a00000)
    libk5crypto.so.3 => /lib64/libk5crypto.so.3 (0x0000003926e00000)
    libcrypto.so.10 => /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.10 (0x0000003927200000)
    libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x000000391a600000)
    libz.so.1 => /lib64/libz.so.1 (0x000000391aa00000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x0000003919e00000)
    libcrypto.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.6 (0x00007ffe1abd9000)
    libkrb5support.so.0 => /lib64/libkrb5support.so.0 (0x0000003925e00000)
    libkeyutils.so.1 => /lib64/libkeyutils.so.1 (0x0000003926a00000)
    libresolv.so.2 => /lib64/libresolv.so.2 (0x000000391be00000)
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x000000391a200000)
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000003919600000)
    libselinux.so.1 => /lib64/libselinux.so.1 (0x000000391b600000)
[mckulpa@nuance-vm ~]$ ls -l libs
total 316
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 mckulpa mckulpa 321224 05-28 14:59 libssl.so.0.9.8e
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mckulpa mckulpa     16 05-28 15:18 libssl.so.10 -> libssl.so.0.9.8e

but all I get is a warning and still the 1.0.1e version is printed out:

[mckulpa@nuance-vm ~]$ openssl version
openssl: /home/mckulpa/libs/libssl.so.10: no version information available (required by openssl)
OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips 11 Feb 2013

Any ideas how to do this properly?