Race Condition Exploitation

Race condition exploitation occurs when an attacker triggers multiple transactions that are processed in a specific order to manipulate the state of a smart contract before it can properly validate the input. In decentralized exchanges, this often involves front-running or sandwiching trades to profit from pending orders.

By observing the mempool, an attacker can insert their transaction to execute before a victim's, effectively altering the state variable to their advantage. This exploit relies on the technical architecture of how transactions are ordered and included in a block.

It is a persistent threat to fair market microstructure.