BIP KB:
How to Install the latest OpenSSL 1.0.2h Version on CentOS 6/7

latest OpenSSL is an open source project that provides a robust, commercial-grade, and full-featured toolkit for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols. It is also a general-purpose cryptography library.

The latest OpenSSL 1.0.2h was released on 03-rd of May 2016. If you are worried about your server security you should update the OpenSSl package to the latest version. Unfortunately all of the CentOS releases includes the out-of-date version of OpenSSL. For example: CentOS 6.7 has OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips 11 Feb 2013 version on the Board now. So you could not upgrade your OpenSSL package by YUM command.

The following steps will guide you to install and update the latest version of OpenSSL package on CentOS 6/7.

Let’s go Step By Step:

Check the latest OpenSSL version:

openssl version
#OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips 11 Feb 2013

Browse, download and unpack the latest version: 

https://www.openssl.org/source/
cd /usr/local/src/
wget https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.0.2h.tar.gz
tar zxvf openssl-1.0.2h.tar.gz

Compile and install:

cd /usr/local/src/openssl-1.0.2h
./config
make depend
make
make install
mv /usr/bin/openssl /usr/local/src/
ln -s /usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl /usr/bin/openssl

Check the current version again:

openssl version
#OpenSSL 1.0.2h  3 May 2016

Conclusion

This simple guide can help you protect your server. Don't forget to update your system!