According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system processes a database query, and comprises a computer system including at least one processor. The system identifies one or more expressions within the database query utilizing a database object with value masking. Masking requirements are determined for each identified expression and the database object utilized by that identified expression is replicated to provide masked and actual versions of that database object in response to the masking requirements for that expression including masked values and actual values of that database object. The value masking of the database object is applied to the identified expressions within the database query based on the determined masking requirements to produce search results with masked values for the database query. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for processing a database query in substantially the same manner described above.