diff --git a/src/backend/parser/parse_agg.c b/src/backend/parser/parse_agg.c
index 0ac8966e30f..2bef05b4833 100644
--- a/src/backend/parser/parse_agg.c
+++ b/src/backend/parser/parse_agg.c
@@ -791,6 +791,33 @@ check_agg_arguments_walker(Node *node,
 					 parser_errposition(context->pstate,
 										((WindowFunc *) node)->location)));
 	}
+
+	if (IsA(node, RangeTblEntry))
+	{
+		/*
+		 * CTE references act as though they were Vars of the CTE's level.
+		 * Typically this doesn't matter because the sub-select containing the
+		 * CTE RTE will also contain Vars referencing that RTE; but if it does
+		 * not, we end with an invalid query tree if we don't do this.
+		 */
+		RangeTblEntry *rte = (RangeTblEntry *) node;
+
+		if (rte->rtekind == RTE_CTE)
+		{
+			int			ctelevelsup = rte->ctelevelsup;
+
+			/* convert levelsup to frame of reference of original query */
+			ctelevelsup -= context->sublevels_up;
+			/* ignore local CTEs of subqueries */
+			if (ctelevelsup >= 0)
+			{
+				if (context->min_varlevel < 0 ||
+					context->min_varlevel > ctelevelsup)
+					context->min_varlevel = ctelevelsup;
+			}
+		}
+		return false;			/* allow range_table_walker to continue */
+	}
 	if (IsA(node, Query))
 	{
 		/* Recurse into subselects */
@@ -800,7 +827,7 @@ check_agg_arguments_walker(Node *node,
 		result = query_tree_walker((Query *) node,
 								   check_agg_arguments_walker,
 								   context,
-								   0);
+								   QTW_EXAMINE_RTES_BEFORE);
 		context->sublevels_up--;
 		return result;
 	}