Since all transactions are visible in the mempool for a short while before being executed, observers of the network can see and react to an action before it is included in a block. An example of how this can be exploited is with a decentralized exchange where a buy order transaction can be seen, and second order can be broadcast and executed before the first transaction is included. Protecting against this is difficult, as it would come down to the specific contract itself.
Front-running, coined originally for traditional financial markets, is the race to order the chaos to the winner's benefit. In financial markets, the flow of information gave birth to intermediaries that could simply profit by being the first to know and react to some information. These attacks mostly had been within stock market deals and early domain registries, such as whois gateways.
https://consensys.github.io/smart-contract-best-practices/attacks/frontrunning/