diff --git a/framework/CHANGELOG.md b/framework/CHANGELOG.md
index c41f36ad8e..b230411fd7 100644
--- a/framework/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/framework/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ Yii Framework 2 Change Log
 - Bug #16687: Add missing translations for `nl-NL` durations used in `yii\i18n\Formatter::asDuration()` (alexeevdv)
 - Bug #16469: Allow cache to be specified as interface and to be configured in DI container (alexeevdv)
 - Bug #16959: Fixed typo in if condition inside `yii\web\DbSession::typecastFields()` that caused problems with session overwriting (silverfire)
+- Bug #15876: `yii\db\ActiveQuery::viaTable()` now throws `InvalidConfigException`, if query is not prepared correctly (silverfire)
 
 2.0.15.1 March 21, 2018
 -----------------------
diff --git a/framework/db/ActiveQuery.php b/framework/db/ActiveQuery.php
index a5c1da01e1..f720864ae4 100644
--- a/framework/db/ActiveQuery.php
+++ b/framework/db/ActiveQuery.php
@@ -767,12 +767,16 @@ class ActiveQuery extends Query implements ActiveQueryInterface
      * @param callable $callable a PHP callback for customizing the relation associated with the junction table.
      * Its signature should be `function($query)`, where `$query` is the query to be customized.
      * @return $this the query object itself
+     * @throws InvalidConfigException when query is not initialized properly
      * @see via()
      */
     public function viaTable($tableName, $link, callable $callable = null)
     {
-        $modelClass = $this->primaryModel !== null ? get_class($this->primaryModel) : __CLASS__;
+        if ($this->primaryModel === null) {
+            throw new InvalidConfigException('The "primaryModel" property is not set. The query must be a relation to use junction tables. You probably need to call hasOne() or hasMany() method first.');
+        }
 
+        $modelClass = get_class($this->primaryModel);
         $relation = new self($modelClass, [
             'from' => [$tableName],
             'link' => $link,
diff --git a/tests/framework/db/ActiveQueryTest.php b/tests/framework/db/ActiveQueryTest.php
index f4f671a469..dd55df61e0 100644
--- a/tests/framework/db/ActiveQueryTest.php
+++ b/tests/framework/db/ActiveQueryTest.php
@@ -215,12 +215,21 @@ abstract class ActiveQueryTest extends DatabaseTestCase
      */
     public function testViaTable()
     {
-        $query = new ActiveQuery(Customer::className());
+        $query = new ActiveQuery(Customer::className(), ['primaryModel' => new Order()]);
         $result = $query->viaTable(Profile::className(), ['id' => 'item_id']);
         $this->assertInstanceOf('yii\db\ActiveQuery', $result);
         $this->assertInstanceOf('yii\db\ActiveQuery', $result->via);
     }
 
+    public function testViaTableOnWronglyConfiguredQuery()
+    {
+        $query = new ActiveQuery(Customer::className());
+
+        $this->expectException('yii\base\InvalidConfigException');
+        $this->expectExceptionMessage('The "primaryModel" property is not set.');
+        $query->viaTable(Profile::className(), ['id' => 'item_id']);
+    }
+
     public function testAlias_not_set()
     {
         $query = new ActiveQuery(Customer::className());