diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d2953756..faef3550 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ all:
 # -DNO_SSL		- disable SSL functionality (-2kb)
 # -DCONFIG_FILE=\"file\" - use `file' as the default config file
 # -DHAVE_STRTOUI64	- use system strtoui64() function for strtoull()
+# -DSSL_LIB=\"libssl.so.<version>\" - use system versioned SSL shared object
+# -DCRYPTO_LIB=\"libcrypto.so.<version>\" - use system versioned CRYPTO so
 
 
 ##########################################################################
diff --git a/mongoose.c b/mongoose.c
index 2d05f262..798f6419 100644
--- a/mongoose.c
+++ b/mongoose.c
@@ -181,9 +181,13 @@ typedef struct DIR {
 #define SSL_LIB   "libssl.dylib"
 #define CRYPTO_LIB  "libcrypto.dylib"
 #else
+#if !defined(SSL_LIB)
 #define SSL_LIB   "libssl.so"
+#endif
+#if !defined(CRYPTO_LIB)
 #define CRYPTO_LIB  "libcrypto.so"
 #endif
+#endif
 #define DIRSEP   '/'
 #define IS_DIRSEP_CHAR(c) ((c) == '/')
 #define O_BINARY  0